Notes on tech

One of my colleagues has a Saathiya title song based ringtone. No big deal, except for the fact that this is in China and my colleague is, as you would've guessed by now, Chinese.

She had no idea that this was a Bollywood movie song. She said that she just liked the music. Then another guy in the office showed me his collection of video clips of Bollywood songs. He had Veer Zara, Mohabbatein and a few others on his PC. Totally unbelievable. Even when I went to the Zhongguancun marketplace to buy a laptop, they were playing an oldie Bollywood song.

When I was in Seattle, I used to regularly lend cassette tapes to the parking lot attendant. He was from Ethopia and was a big fan of Bollywood music. Infact he said that back home he had a huge collection of hindi songs.

Although these are just a couple of examples, I am sure there are other (non-indian) people that like Bollywood grooves. There is no good enough place on the web, from where I can purchase Bollywood songs for, lets say, 99 cents. Ofcourse, apart from Bollywood music, India also produces a ton of other music - Ghazals, Bhajans, Indian bands etc. There is an opportunity here.

There are tens of underground sites where people can download hindi songs. Why not make it a legit business? Why not come up with a simplistic interface and just cater to the I-love-bollywood audience? Now that a lot of foreign music houses (like Vivendi, Universal, Sony) are entering India, wouldnt it be easier for Steve Jobs to cut a deal with them for Indian songs as well?