Legendary singer Lata Mangeshkar carried her dominance into the app age

In the past 12 months, her songs were streamed 6.7 billion times on her YouTube channel

Saregama, India’s oldest music label, is home to 130,000-plus songs. Every time any of these is played on streaming apps (YouTube, Spotify, Gaana), used by short video apps (Moj, Josh) or on TV (ads, shows), Saregama gets paid. In the financial year 2020-21, the company earned Rs 284 crore, or three-fourths of its revenue, from such licensing of songs by Lata Mangeshkar, Mohammed Rafi, Kishore Kumar et al. Songs from Saregama’s catalogue were streamed 85 billion times in the last financial year. “Lata Mangeshkar was the tallest singer we had,” said Vikram Mehra, managing director, Saregama. It has 80-90 per