Saregama Plans Rs 300 To 350 Crore On New Music This Year, Managing Director Tells Analysts
On the Q2 call, Vikram Mehra put new-music spend near Rs 1,200 crore for FY28 to FY30 and named the second-half albums, led by Bhansali's Love & War.
Saregama will spend Rs 300 crore to Rs 350 crore on new music in the year to March 2027, Managing Director Vikram Mehra told analysts on the company's earnings call on Wednesday, 4 November. After that, he said, the budget will grow by about 10 per cent a year, which he put at roughly Rs 1,200 crore for the three years from FY28 to FY30.
The call followed the quarterly filing we reported on Wednesday, when net profit rose 46 per cent to Rs 64.17 crore. The filing gave the numbers. The call gave the plan behind them, from the second-half album list to how the label sees live shows, short video and AI.
Spending and payback
Mehra said Saregama expects a five-year payback on the music it buys, followed by 55 to 75 years of returns. Older purchases are now earning more than they cost to write off. "We are entering that cycle now, where content that was bought two, three, or four years ago is starting to contribute positive margins," he said.
The investor presentation shows the effect in the music business. Music EBITDA was Rs 154 crore, against Rs 112.3 crore a year earlier. Music net margin, which is EBITDA less the content charge, rose 46 per cent to Rs 116.5 crore. Mehra asked analysts to judge the company on a rolling 12 months, because releases and marketing spend bunch up in some quarters.
He gave two catalogue numbers: more than 180,000 songs, growing by 4,500 to 5,000 releases a year, and 60 per cent of last year's music revenue from songs released after 2000.
The second-half slate
The first half leaned on non-film music, he said: the I-Popstar albums in Hindi and Tamil, Haryanvi and Bihari songs, and the Telugu film album The Paradise, whose "Yeshanagula" reached No 1 on YouTube's daily global music video chart, according to the presentation. The second half is film-led. Mehra named Sanjay Leela Bhansali's Love & War, due in the January to March quarter, a Sivakarthikeyan film, Dharma's Kartik Aaryan film Naagzilla, and a Tiger Shroff film that Bhansali is producing. Saregama pays Bhansali Productions separately for the music, he said, apart from its equity stake in the company.
Live events
An analyst noted that the events business made a loss in the quarter. Mehra said the company is deliberately shifting from artist-led concerts to formats it owns, and that the costs of building them are expensed, not capitalised. He named UN40, a music festival, Hahakaar, a stand-up festival, and Carvaan Live. Coming up are a Guru Randhawa show, UN40, Hahakaar and one more tour that is yet to be announced.
Asked about a Diljit Dosanjh tour, he said Saregama will not do one this season. "The financials were not working out," he said, and called Dosanjh "the greatest performer this country has ever seen."
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Streaming, short video and AI
Paid subscriptions are growing much faster than ad-supported listening, Mehra said, and a paid listener yields more per song. He said Universal Music has agreed to a windowing model in India, in which some new releases go first to paying listeners. Universal's 72-hour window, in place since late August, is in our analysis, and Spotify's free-tier changes are in this report.
Deals with YouTube Shorts and Instagram Reels remain fixed-fee, he said, and Saregama wants a share of advertising revenue instead. No change has been announced.
On AI, Saregama has set up two teams, one making audio content such as podcasts and music videos from its songs, the other trimming internal processes. Mehra said it plans about 100 hours of podcasts in the October to December quarter. He said unlicensed AI covers and remakes of its songs are the nearer threat, that Saregama tracks them on streaming platforms and either buys them out or has them removed, and that it wants licensed, credited and paid AI versions of its catalogue.
The Carvaan app is still being tested with owners of the company's hardware, he said, and he does not intend it to become a streaming service. He said the company would share more once the test phase ends, which he put at four to six months away.
More label and money stories are on Business and Film Music.
(Source: Saregama India Q2 FY27 earnings call transcript, 4 November 2026; investor presentation filed with NSE and BSE, 4 November 2026)
