Synopsis: A century-old music company has been quietly restructuring itself, moving beyond royalty collection into artist management, live events, and brand partnerships. Its cluster of new revenue lines around old song catalogs raises an interesting question for investors tracking the media and entertainment space.
India’s music industry has long run on a simple model: license songs to platforms and collect royalties. But one of the country’s oldest entertainment IP owners has been steadily building something more layered around its catalog, turning songs, artists and audiences into several separate businesses instead of one. Here’s a closer look at how it’s positioned.
With a market capitalization of Rs. 9,981 crore, the shares of Saregama India Limited were trading at Rs. 518 per share, with a 52-week range of Rs. 520 to Rs. 307.05, and they are trading at a P/E of approximately 47x.
A Catalogue Built for Compounding
Saregama India, part of the RP-Sanjiv Goenka Group, traces its roots back to 1902 and today owns a catalog of over 180,000 songs, growing by roughly 5,500 new releases every year.
For the quarter ended March 2026, the company reported revenue from operations of ₹287 crore, up 19% YoY, with adjusted EBITDA of ₹133 crore, up 31% YoY. For the full year, revenue came in at ₹984.6 crore, while the music vertical alone, combining licensing, artist management, and retail, generated ₹814.4 crore, growing 17% YoY with an EBITDA of ₹516.7 crore, up 22%.
From Licensing Songs to Managing Artists
Rather than earning only when a song streams, the company has built out a separate artiste management business that monetizes the people behind the songs. It added 33 artists in the March quarter alone, taking its managed roster past 300, with a combined digital reach of over 410 million followers. These artists generate income through live event bookings, weddings, and brand endorsements, on top of whatever their music already earns through licensing, giving the company a second income stream tied to the same underlying popularity.
Building Its Own Live Events IP
Instead of simply hosting one-off concerts, the company has been building proprietary event formats. It launched its first music festival brand, UN40, in Bengaluru in March 2026, positioned specifically for audiences under 40 and featuring over 25 artists alongside stand-up comedy and interactive games.
The debut edition drew over 12,000-18000 attendees and eight sponsor brands, though management expects the format to take until FY28 to break even, typical for festival IPs in their early years. Live events revenue for FY26 stood at ₹61.8 crore, sharply lower than FY25’s ₹285.2 crore, but that comparison is skewed by a one-off Diljit Dosanjh India tour the previous year; stripped of that, the underlying live business still grew.
Brands Are Paying to Be Part of the Ecosystem
The company’s brand partnerships vertical, created to package its content, artists and events together for advertisers, worked with names including Skoda, Lakmé, Hero, OpenAI, Coca-Cola and Ajio during the March quarter. It’s a small line item today, but it reflects how the same digital footprint that once only sold songs is increasingly being sold to brands looking for cultural reach.
One Hit Song, Multiple Payoffs
The clearest illustration of this strategy is how the company treats a single successful album. The Dhurandhar soundtrack, released in December, was still generating 6 million daily streams and 11 million YouTube views five months after release, with its lead track holding the number one global position on YouTube.
That sustained pull feeds artist bookings, brand tie-ups, and future licensing deals, rather than fading out after the initial release, stretching the earning life of a single piece of IP well beyond a traditional royalty cycle. The company also secured a strategic minority stake in Bhansali Productions, locking in access to marquee Hindi film music at a pre-agreed cost for the next 24 to 30 months.
Financial Snapshot & Business Overview
For FY26, consolidated PAT stood at ₹206.2 crore, roughly flat YoY, with diluted EPS at ₹10.73. Return on equity came in at 13.3%, and management has acknowledged it wants this higher, attributing the near-term compression to an aggressive content investment cycle of roughly ₹1,000 crore spread across FY25-27. The balance sheet remains net debt-free, and the company’s owned digital platforms collectively reach over 650 million followers and subscribers, a base management calls its moat for acquiring and promoting new IP.
Conclusion
The comparison to Disney isn’t accidental. Disney’s own playbook has long been about squeezing one piece of IP across multiple businesses, with films feeding theme parks, merchandise, streaming, and stage shows so that a single franchise earns for decades instead of one release cycle.
Saregama is attempting a scaled-down version of the same idea: a hit song feeding artist bookings, live events, brand deals, and licensing, rather than fading out after its streaming run. The difference is scale and maturity. Disney’s flywheel took decades to build, while Saregama is only three to four years into stitching its pieces together, which is exactly why the next few years of execution will matter more than the thesis itself.
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