Apurv Nagpal is the Managing Director of Saregama India, one of India's largest music labels. Saregama has its own online store at Saregama.com, and it recently acquired a 10% equity stake in Timbre Media, for launching music services cross platform - including on DTH, the Internet and mobile. MediaNama spoke with Nagpal on the investment, physical versus digital music, government policy, online music piracy, legal maneuvers, ISP liability, among other things. Part 1 of this interview: MediaNama: Why did you invest in Timbre Media? Apurv Nagpal: We have been looking at various options for gearing up with our digital presence. There are several moves under way right now as we speak. Timbre Media came along and we had several chats with them. I think the WorldSpace brand had managed to establish a clear clientele, despite its cumbersome mode of delivery and high subscription fee. It was clearly something that the programming team there had managed to achieve. We sensed an opportunity to take our catalog where it had not gone before. What we did agree upon and what we are implementing is that we are going to do delivery via the Internet, the DTH channels, and mobile Radio, and other options. no longer will the consumer have to go and buy a device to listen to WorldSpace and their channels. MediaNama:But Worldspace was as much about the quality of the sound as the programming. Apurv Nagpal: Why do you say that? Because they sold you a boom box. My point…
