Technology changes lives. It also introduces a new perspective to business fraternity and the audio sector is not an exception.
The decades-old audio recording trade in city has undergone a heartening change thanks to the upgrading technology and now music to your ears is available just a click (of a mouse) away.
Audio companies dealing with cassettes and compact discs (CDs) are now a passé. With the mushrooming of the cellphone shops downloading songs of various genres to the customers in a jiffy, the pursuit of music has acquired a new meaning.
“Listening to music in mobiles is the in thing. Packing the memory cards with hundreds of songs is the first thing youngsters do after buying a swanky mobile. As many as 500 songs can be copied at one go,” says Kiran Kumar, a student.
Visit any of the 20-odd music shops located at the busy Lenin Centre, one would find music lovers discussing the latest songs to be downloaded or browsing what songs to be selected from the music flies. Each shop, on average, meets the requirement of around 25 customers a day and each one makes around Rs. 500 to Rs. 700 a day.
“We pay Rs. 22,000 per annum to the Indian Music Association (IMA) for the licence to download songs from the Internet. The licence gives access to collections of all the famous music companies like HMV, Sony and T-Series,” says P. Suresh Kumar, a shopkeeper.
These shops dotting Governorpet and Arundelpet have a huge collection of songs from Telugu, Hindi and English films. “We also have karaoke songs in Telugu. Those in the orchestra field prefer downloading the sing-along songs. The present craze among youngsters is the Balakrishna-starrer “Legend” songs,” Mr. Kumar adds.
Senior citizensMr. Kumar also says that senior citizens also visit frequently to upgrade their songs in the devotional folder. “The rush of elderly people will be more in the festival season.”
Quite interestingly all the shopkeepers are having long nails and they say it is a prerequisite for the business they do. “We need to remove the mobile cover and also eject the memory cards from the tiny socket. We do it so many times and a sharp nail will make our job all the more easy,” says Rehman, a shopkeeper.
Music lovers of 70s and 80s recollect their association with audio shops where they used to spend hours to select their favourite songs from the beefy catalogue. “In fact acquiring music used to be a leisurely pursuit. After selecting songs, we used to collect the recorded cassettes after a week. Now, music is just a click away,” reminisces Mohammad Khaja, a popular Hindi Singer of Mayur Orchestra.
