CDs are "Faltu" in Bollywood now?

Mumbai: Like any other Bollywood producer, Vashu Bhagnani held a music launch event this week for his upcoming film. But there was one thing missing -- the music CD.

Instead, Bhagnani "released" the music of his film "Faltu" digitally, allowing users to download individual tracks from the film's website.

"I didn't see the point of releasing CDs because no one buys them these days," says Bhagnani. "It's cheaper to pay 10 rupees per song rather than buying an entire CD for 150 rupees," he said.

While this may be the first time in Bollywood that a film's music is available only digitally, Bhagnani has only done what most producers had been mulling for a long time. India's mobile market is huge with around 730 million subscribers, roughly equivalent to Europe's population.

With the number of subscribers growing at some 17-18 million a month, more and more users can easily access their favourite music through mobile downloads.

A KPMG report last year estimated that physical formats accounted for 57 percent of industry revenues in 2009, down ten percent from the previous year.

The report also estimated that revenues from physical formats would decline at 6.8 percent from 2009 to 2014.

"These days producers release a token 5,000 CDs at the release of a film, because CD sales are at an all-time low," says Aparna Joshi, editor of music magazine Sound Box.

Even the makers of films like "Rock On", which featured several chartbusters, focused more on digital downloads than CDs.

"Producers are now concentrating more and more on digitising their music, to attract more revenues," says Joshi, adding that CD sales are just a formality.

The Indian digital music market is estimated to have been worth 2.6 billion rupees in 2009 and expected to grow exponentially with the advent of 3G technology.

Bollywood is the largest contributor to industry revenues, accounting for around 65 percent. Still, it may still take time for movie producers to follow in Bhagnani's footsteps, with most still wary of a digitally-only release.

"They have to wake up to reality and understand that the consumer wants something different," says Bhagnani.