MUMBAI: If the Ganesh festival is here, can the devotional albums be far behind?
More than 200 different albums launched by various labels, some new and many vintage, are currently lining music store racks across Mumbai. The voices behind the albums include newbies as well as stalwarts like Asha Bhosle, Lata Mangeshkar, Sonu Nigaam and Shreya Ghoshal, and the repertoire encompasses chants, shloks, bhajans and even remixes of popular Hindi film songs, modified with lyrics loaded with piety.
This year, EMI has released three Ganesha albums, one by Jagjit Singh and the other two by Pt Jasraj. Sagarika Music has released Lalbaugcha Raja, a Marathi devotional album this year, while T-Series has acquired the music rights of devotional movie Shree Siddhivinayak (the first film to be produced by the Mumbai based Siddhivinayak Temple Trust) and Times Music has launched Maha ganesha by Sonu Nigaam earlier this month.
Predictably, the sales of Ganesha devotional CDs are on a high – for 15-20 days after Gokulashtami till the fifth day of the Ganesh festival.
We promote our albums through a lot of ground events during specific festivals. We have also promoted our albums through radio, television and print. Sagarika music approximately sells 15-20,000 CDs all over Maharashtra,… says Sagarika Music director Sagarika Bam.
We always bring well known artistes to sing for our devotional albums. Their name itself makes a big difference to the album to be picked up. Artistes like Pt Jasraj and Jagjit Singh do not need promotional campaigns, We make sure that our albums are given good visibility on the stores and it gets noticed by the audience,… says EMI general manager T Suresh.
New devotional albums have their own market and approximately 400-500,000 units of such albums are sold during festive seasons across labels, avers Suresh.
Adds Planet M entertainment category head Soumitra Maitra, The sales of devotional albums has been very high for three years now. But the influence of well known singers like Asha Bhosle, Lata Mangeshkar, Pt Jasraj and other big names has increased the prices of the CDs, which often acts as a deterrent to purchases. Planet M does not make any special arrangement during this season….