MUMBAI: The war between digital and physical music sales is not over as yet, averred the music retail industry’s head honchos during a panel discussion at Radioandmusic.com’s Nokia Music Connects 4. Although the numbers say that physical music sales might have been overtaken by digital music sales, the physical retail model is still standing.

Discussing ‘The emergence of the Retail Outlet’, panel members- Rhythm House MD Mehmood Curmally, Giri Trading director T S Ranganathan Giri, Sony DADC Home Entertainment  business head Rajat Kakar revealed that the market for physical music still existed today.

“There is a world out there beyond the metros, which is not yet connected by the internet. Those markets- the smaller towns, still depend on CDs for music. Globally too, physical sales still account for 50 percent of the market which is worth USD 19-20 billion,” Kakar said.

Sony DADC Home Entertainment is in fact setting up a new distribution system for physical music to cater to this market. It plans to take the license, set the price for the product, distribute and market the music from owners and target towns with populations of 500,000 across India, revealed Kakar.

“CD sales are down but are still strong. The downturn in sales per unit has been balanced by spread in genre. And video sales have also gone up making up for the loss in CD sales,” Curmally informed.

Another revelation of the music retail outlet chain in India which the panel shared was the emergence of back bencher music- spiritual, fusion and categories like Carnatic classical music which were generating revenues. “The back benchers contribution to revenue is up 55-60 percent, especially that of fusion music. International pop music also contributes to 40 per cent of the pop music sales, Curmally revealed.

The panel reckoned that what may be emerging is a retail model with a heavy base, CD sales- with a long digital tail. Even the vinyl market, which is now very much a niche segment, has a small but steady set of buyers who are willing to spend up to Rs 1,500 for a Neil Young LP on vinyl.

Also, the retail space has innovated to make it easier for customers to consume digital music. Giri Trading has placed its manned music kiosks around Mumbai in suburbs like Chembur, Nerul, Goregaon and Matunga for consumers to select music and download it onto their phones, USBs or CDs.

“Music doesn’t sell by itself. When customers get help, they tend to buy more. Our kiosks have over 250,000 songs and people can browse and download the songs. We own a total of 40 kiosks and we plan to expand and make unmanned and more user-friendly kiosks,” Giri Trading Director TS Ranganathan said.

“But at the end of the day, it takes passion to sell music,” Curmally concluded.