Devotional songs keep the cassette industry going

Divine intervention has come to the rescue of the cassette industry, which had been gradually relegated to the background by the digital boom, as the sale of devotional songs keep the industry going strong.

The advent of non-physical formats, mobile value added services, CDs and DVDs made cassetes take a back seat, but devotional songs are always in demand.

"From the last ten years, there is a fall of almost 50% in the sale of cassettes but in the devotional songs category, cassettes are still sold more. Film songs cassettes aren't preferred much," says T-Series president marketing & media, Vinod Bhanushali.

According to a joint research conducted by FICCI and KPMG, the physical formats such as audio cassettes and compact discs that accounted for 87% of the industry revenues in 2005 currently account for just under 50% in 2008.

FICCI and KPMG research also points out that the size of the Indian music industry was estimated at around Rs7.3 billion in 2008, down from Rs8.3 billion in 2005, implying a degrowth of 4.8 per cent during the period. One of the primary reasons for this growth has been the erosion of sales of physical formats.

For Bhushan Dua who owns a music store in a small corner of Connaught Place, the demand for cassettes has no doubt declined but he says it would be an exaggeration to think that cassettes aren't available in the market and there are no consumers for it.

"It is not that there isn't any demand for cassettes. It is just that the demand has come down. But devotional songs still sell well," says Dua.

Arvind Kumar, owner of a music store in Darya Ganj says, "I have witnessed the change myself. Initially we sold just cassettes, then it was CDs and cassettes, then cassettes CDs and DVDs. The demand for cassettes has decreased but I have old consumers, mostly in their 50s who come for cassettes."

"We have a section for cassettes but people are hardly interested in purchasing them. We still have consumers coming for cassettes, especially devotional numbers," says Ravi Sekhari from Manohars, a music store.

Bharti, a college student is meanwhile intrigued by her grandmother's insistence on using only cassettes. "Naani loves putting a cassette into the tape recorder and listen to old songs and is comfortable with it and doesn't like CDs or DVDs," says Bharti.

Super Cassettes Industries commonly known as 'T-Series' says that for some of it’s consumers, cassettes are still the best available option although the affordability and availability of CDs has increased widely.

"Today even in villages, the affordability and availability of CDs has increased. Cassettes are still the preference among the truck drivers. A change in hardware calls for a change in the software so why would one jump to CDs or DVDs," says Bhanushali.

Balwant Singh, a bus driver from Punjab who works in the capital says, "What CD players? what CDs? We have lived with these cassettes our whole life and are comfortable and acquainted with it."