Spotify removes the entire Saregama catalog from its platform

Saregama requested the intervention of the Court to prohibit Spotify from exploiting his songs

Spotify had applied for a license to Saregama before its launch in India

Saregama has a catalog of 120,000 songs

The global music broadcasting giant Spotify announced at the Delhi High Court that it will remove from its platform all the works owned by Saregama India, the oldest Indian label, of 39, here 10 days.

Saregama went to the Delhi High Court in search of court injunction against Spotify to prevent him from exploiting his songs or committing any act that it would be a violation of his intellectual property rights.

Saregama's attorney, represented by lead counsel Sajan Poovayya, told Judge Jayant Nath that Spotify had approached Saregama to apply for license to broadcast Saregama's musical works on his platform. .

Negotiations take place as a result. the parties also started and the terms of the license were discussed. Subsequently, Saregama provided the copyright of its catalog one month before the launch of Spotify in India.

However, the license agreement could not be finalized thereafter and Saregama asked Spotify to block all of its work on the application.

Spotify's lawyers, P Chidambaram and CM Lall, indicated that Spotify's lawyer did not view litigation as a contradictory process. As such, it is committed to removing Saregama's content from its platform within 10 days of April 23rd.

The court noted that Spotify would be bound by its declaration to register the content. The hearing is scheduled for May 5th.

Spotify or Saregama: who will be the loser?

Spotify was launched February 28 in India and claims to have reached one million users in the space of one week.

He charges NIS 119 per month for the premium version without ads, while current leaders in the streaming music market in India, Gaana, JioSaavn, and Hungama, charge INR 99 per month.

The company offers more than 40 songs and 3 song lists of Indian and international music, atmospheres and different moments. . The company had signed many partnerships with Indian music labels such as T-Series when preparing for its launch in the country.

It is interesting to note that Saregama has 120,000 songs, including almost the first recorded song in India and the first 80 years. movie songs. Speaking to Inc42 recently, Saregama CEO Vikram Mehra said, "We have a monopoly here; that, our music and a million devices sold are nothing, especially if you say that to a mobile phone company, it will not even look at you. We are an IP content company and we want to become the first IP content company to feed content platforms in India and abroad. "

As an IP content company, Saregama, which licenses music to streaming channels, is a significant source of revenue, and Saregama has partnered extensively with players such as Amazon Prime Music, Gaana and Jio Saavn

This is the second licensing problem faced by Spotify in India since its launch in February, before the launch in India, Warner Music Group (WMG) filed an injunction against Spotify in Indian court after license negotiations fail, after the loss of two music labels things do not look very good for Spotify in India