Bengaluru still finds takers for vinyl records

Going by their experience, vinyl dealers in Bengaluru believe that this time round, the record culture is here to stay

For nearly 45 years, Ram’s Musique has operated out of MG Road as a music retail store; more recently, it transformed into a vinyl experience centre for budding and seasoned LP collectors in the city.

The founder, Ramachandran, is now running it with his son Sangeeth Ram. Over the years, he has had a front row seat to the changing patterns in music consumption. From cassettes being at their peak in the 1980s to CDs in the 1990s and early 2000s, Ram recounts how with the proliferation of digital music — first as MP3s and later, internet streaming platforms — “low quality/compressed music formats satisfied the needs” of consumers.

Ramachandran says, “Convenience and accessibility won over quality. People forgot the joy of owning an album of their favorite musician or band. Business became stagnant. Most of our competitors shut shop, but we decided to stay open. It wasn’t easy.”

Taking on other business ideas to keep Ram’s Musique afloat, the founder says, “We knew vinyls would be back one day.”

The global market size for vinyl records size was valued at $246.3 million in 2023 and is forecast to a readjusted size of $629.9 million by 2030. India is also counted among sizeable markets in the Asia-Pacific, although China is the leading force for vinyl sales in the region.

With worldwide initiatives such as Record Store Day held on the third Saturday in April and on Black Friday in November since 2007, it is safe to say that there has been a return to vinyl consumption on a level that an ecosystem of sorts has formed in cities including Bengaluru, where entrepreneurs and fans are seeing commercial sense in being part of the vinyl experience.

Karthik Chandrasekaran, partner at The Record Room, says ever since they launched in 2022, they saw the “initial excitement” of everyone wanting to pick up LPs, use high-end turntables at listening stations and start their own journey as collectors at their craft beer and vinyl bar. “I think that excitement never died because our listening station has taken quite a beating in the last couple of years, and we’ve had to fix it a few times,” Karthik laughs.