Archive of Indian Music (AIM)

[Vikramsampath]

Dear all,

In today’s modern age with technology making its presence felt in every walk of life, especially in the field of music and audio recording, it is ironic that is almost impossible to listen to the earliest recordings of our music right from the wax cylinder, gramophone shellacs (78 RPMs) and vinyl LP eras unless one has the required player or already digitized format of the records. A lot of these rare recordings which capture the voices of our ancestors are depleting at an alarmingly rapid rate. Digitization of these records and preserving of this music for posterity and making them easily and electronically available to musicians, researchers, students of music and interested public is the need of the hour. It is to achieve this hallowed objective that the Archive of Indian Music (AIM) has been established as a private and not-for-profit Trust that can help conserve the gramophone recordings and bring them back into circulation.

The plan was to begin with South Indian recordings starting 1904 when the first Artists from the South were recorded. This would include classical, folk, Theatre and early cinema recordings of that era, as also non commercial recordings like voices of common Indians, speeches of leaders etc that some companies from Europe made. In the long run, of course the idea is to expand beyond South India and create a central repository for all kinds of recordings and genres including from other parts of India. Headquartered in Bangalore, AIM would begin operations by September this year which would also involve the launch of a Website that would post these digitized clips regularly.

Since the goal of the Archive is to ensure that these rare treasures of our past are not only preserved but also reach out to the maximum number of people, dissemination is an important component. The website is a major tool through the clips would be made available to people right from the comfort of their homes. In addition, brief biographical details of the artists, vintage photographs, gramophone sleeves etc would also be put up there.The Archive seeks to also set up kiosks at important venues like sabhas in major cities, in schools and Universities to increase the reach of these recordings and also make people familiar about this era of 1900-1940 which is what the bulk of the clips would belong to. It hopes to conduct guided listening sessions and curate theme based exhibitions in the long run after it has built up a suitable corpus to achieve this objective.

The Times of India did a curtain raiser on the Archive- the link of which is shared below.
http://www1.lite.epaper.timesofindia.co ... I&max=true

I have been lucky to gain the goodwill of several record collectors across India who have joined hands in this project. The Archive is also guided by an eminent Board of Advisors: Chinmaya Gharekhan, President of IGNCA, Delhi, eminent filmmaker Mr Shyam Benegal, Bharatanatyam exponent Smt Alarmel Valli, musicologist and scholar (formerly with ITC SRA Kolkata) Pt. Vijay Kichlu, renowned musicians Smt Shyamala G. Bhave, Smt Bombay Jayashri, Dr Jayanthi Kumaresh and Smt Lalith Rao, Bharatanatyam exponent and dance critic Smt Nandini Ramani, Ms. Arundhati Ghosh of India Foundation for Arts and Mr. Bhaskar Mitra of Sangeet Ashram, Kolkata.

Understandly, this is a mammoth task and I seek the support of many like-minded individuals on this Forum. Once the website is ready i will certainly post the details here and seek your feedback. In the meanwhile, if anyone has or knows people who have gramophone records or old LP's that need to be digitized, please do drop me an email either on vikram.sampath@gmail.com or through my website http://www.vikramsampath.com

Thanks and regards
Vikram.

[mohan]

Great initiative Vikram. Good luck and looking forward to seeing the website in operation.

[Sreeni Rajarao]

Vikram,

Best wishes for your initiative!

You might already know that this forum has some active members who are veterans in this kind of work. You are in the right place in your effort to connect with like-minded rasika-s.

[varsha]

Moore Market - in the relocated premises - next to chennai railway station has thousands of records priced at rs . 40-65 per record . stored in pathetic ways .They are deteriorating badly , by the day .
Better to look for sponsors to pump in the money . btw there is a very active organisation based in mumbai which has done this work already , though it leans towards non-carnatic music .

[harimau]

There is already in Chennai this:

http://www.rasikas.org/forum/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=19238

Are you going to be able to get equipment similar to that? I doubt it, as those are built-to-order, one-of-a-kind devices and they can choose whether they want to build one for you or not.

Google for "Laser Turntables" and you will find that there is a Japanese company selling a model for about $17,000 pounds sterling.

If you are going to get an ordinary turntable and then compress the music to MP3, my suggestion would be not to bother. Either we capture the music as much as possible, clean it up as much as within our reach and disseminate it at the highest quality or just store the records in an airconditioned room and wait for better times/equipment.

Just my two cents.

Good luck!

[Vikramsampath]

Thanks to all for the wishes and the suggestions!
@Varsha: Yes i am aware of this dealer in Moore Market and have in fact already purchased a huge set of records from him and hope to complete a few more in the days ahead. The organization u mention is possibly the Society of Indian Records Collectors in Mumbai ? If u see the article i attached carefully, one of its founder members and Honorary Secretary Dr Suresh Chandvankar is on the Board of Trustees for the Archive as well. So yes, the idea is to create synergies and pool in the best talent and expertise in this domain.
@Harimau: Valid advice! Have seen the IRENE and it's a neat system. But there havent been too many instances of its use in the past for us to have data points about whether its better than the conventional machines and/or can be portable. Other than Berkeley and RMRL, dont think its being used elsewhere. the Archive has imported machinery from US, England and Denmark and these meet the international guidelines set on fidelity in sound transfers, as put out by the British Library. So i am guessing it should be up to the mark

[varsha]

Dr Suresh Chandvankar is on the Board of Trustees for the Archive as well.

Brings in much needed legitimacy to the proceedings . In the sense that other Organisations in the past have been tight fisted when receiving , but have very wide open arms when it came to taking

Very badly needed effort for South Indian Music . Will get in touch with you .

There is the biggest problem of retaining this sense of debt (to past masters) over long periods of time , though . By not becoming power centres themselves in the process of serving the future . Something which has afflicted big names and helped pamper egos . Hope the Lord Almighty gives you all the strength to avoid these pitfalls

[rshankar]

Vikram, best wishes!

[arasi]

Vikram,
Your work for CM has been very impressive so far. Authorship at such a young age is commendable. To organize something like this on top of it needs a lot of dedication and generosity with one's time. More power to your work!

[PUNARVASU]

An initiative that is much needed. All the best Vikram Sampath.

[Rsachi]

As someone who liked his two books on Gauhar Jaan and Wodeyars, I would like to compliment Vikram Sampath on this initiative. Obviously this calls for more organization and upkeep than creative writing.

Some thoughts:
1. What about All India Radio, and more recently DD? They need help and encouragement to digitize, catalog and distribute much better their treasure-trove (orders of magnitude bigger than the body of shellac/vinyl records) ...
2. Nowadays Amritavarshini and Chandana do a poor job of even compering their programs. I know no reliable place to find out what CM programs will feature today/tomorrow/next week with details of artistes (and themes if any.) I found Australian Broadcasting Corp. =ABC FM a true marvel in this regard.
3. It's high time an association with membership and money was created in Carnatic Music to respond to/orchestrate/support many such efforts from Academies, Samajas and initiatives like this Archive. Is Rasikas.Org such a place to start? How do we create resonance rather than cacophony?
4. Some community churches collect x% of earnings from each one. Can self-proclaimed rasikas contribute say 1% to such an association membership? My math tells me it can become a huge collective fund.

[arasi]

All very good ideas, Rsachi.
Yes, at Rasikas.org, we can do our bit. Whatever we can give is fine--even token amounts. When the donors' numbers run in thousands, they make a handsome offering. More than reluctance, it is not carrying out the intent which results in poor contribution, we have noticed time and again
Rasikas.org is a dynamic place. Many eager minds come together in music and in other arts here.
Hope the government and organizations shoulder the effort. We rasikAs should join in, our reward being the satisfaction of offering our appreciation in kind, however humble--just as when a temple is brought back to its old glory, every little bhaktha takes pride and is happy in offering his little token for a good deed--however much the government, religious institutions and the wealthy of the land contribute to the effort.

[Rsachi]

LET's DO IT!

Please lead me to where this is discussed and actioned - I need to know Rasikas.Org much better.

Arasi in Kannada means Searching. Also it means a Queen. So no one to lead me is better than Arasi!

[harimau]

@Harimau: Valid advice! Have seen the IRENE and it's a neat system. But there havent been too many instances of its use in the past for us to have data points about whether its better than the conventional machines and/or can be portable. Other than Berkeley and RMRL, dont think its being used elsewhere.

Samples of music recovered by IRENE and by conventional means can be found here: http://irene.lbl.gov/. A Google search may reveal longer sound samples.

Then there is the ELP laser turntable that is commercially produced but is built to order. http://www.elpj.com/

There is also the fiber-optic pickup described here: http://www.christerhamp.se/phono/poliak.html

the Archive has imported machinery from US, England and Denmark and these meet the international guidelines set on fidelity in sound transfers, as put out by the British Library. So i am guessing it should be up to the mark

I would like to know what these are. Particularly since research work in Russia, Switzerland, Penn State University in the US, etc., are devoted to archival of old records. Even IRENE is such a research program.

I am interested in knowing brand names/models of turntables, cartidges, tone-arms since I myself am trying to "save" old "plates" in my own humble way.

[arasi]

Thanks, Rsachi. Yes, arasi, arasathi--hesarali mAthra, but a peasant otherwise. They call me Queenie too
As fo rthe meaning 'search', that's what I am still doing!

General Discussions section is where such matters are discussed. Others will chime in, no doubt.

[varsha]

Here is some raddii .
Need some help in identifying names of Composers and ragas for tracks where I have not been to identify / label.
NC Vasanthakokilam .
http://www.mediafire.com/?fb8fa01kvw8eb

[Pratyaksham Bala]

Arvat tIyAl - Suddhananda Bharati
bhArati pATTennum - M.P. Periyasamy
kalaivAni aruL purivAL - Papanasam Sivan
nittiraiyil vandu nenjil iDam konDa - Suddhananda Bharati
shentamizh Osai - M.P. Periyasamy
tittikkum shentamizhAl - Suddhananda Bharati
udaya sundari - Suddhananda Bharati

[varsha]

Thank you very much

[Lakshman]

I have bhArati pATTEnum and shentamizh Osai listed in my database as Shuddhananda Bharati's songs. The item tittikkum shentamizh is by Guhan according to the link given by varsha.

[eesha]

1. What about All India Radio, and more recently DD? They need help and encouragement to digitize, catalog and distribute much better their treasure-trove (orders of magnitude bigger than the body of shellac/vinyl records) ...

This is already happening in some form through sangeethapriya.org . Sri TVG is specialising in digitising AIR, DD concerts.

[harimau]

This is already happening in some form through sangeethapriya.org . Sri TVG is specialising in digitising AIR, DD concerts.

Doordarshan-Chennai (Podhigai, as it calls itself) used to have brief announcements when new CDs/DVDs are issued from the AIR archives. I normally rush to AIR to buy these treasures.

Upon inquiry, I found that nearly 1000 programs have been digitized from tapes and are awaiting approval from HQ in New Delhi before any of them can be stamped out as commercial CDs for sale to the public but that no approval is forthcoming.

Almost a dozen years ago, T-Series (of the re-mix cassettes fame whose owner Gulshan Kumar was shot to death quite a while ago) obtained reproduction rights to a part of AIR archives and produced nearly 120 CDs from the archived material. They were priced at Rs. 65 a CD (later increased to Rs. 85 and then maybe more) but were hard to find at local music stores. I had to send a nephew out to their warehouse in NOIDA to buy me a complete set. In that series, you have 10 CDs each of Bade Ghulam Ali Khan and Ustad Bismillah Khan.

AIR today records in digital media so the quality of recording ought to be good.The re-broadcasts of earlier concerts by yeteryear giants is also from digitized versions as opposed to reel-to-reel tapes. Walking into their store-room in Chennai, one is amazed at the amount of dust on the shelves where they store LPs and other records.

[Sapthagiri]

Dear all,

In today’s modern age with technology making its presence felt in every walk of life, especially in the field of music and audio recording, it is ironic that is almost impossible to listen to the earliest recordings of our music right from the wax cylinder, gramophone shellacs (78 RPMs) and vinyl LP eras unless one has the required player or already digitized format of the records. A lot of these rare recordings which capture the voices of our ancestors are depleting at an alarmingly rapid rate. Digitization of these records and preserving of this music for posterity and making them easily and electronically available to musicians, researchers, students of music and interested public is the need of the hour. It is to achieve this hallowed objective that the Archive of Indian Music (AIM) has been established as a private and not-for-profit Trust that can help conserve the gramophone recordings and bring them back into circulation.

The plan was to begin with South Indian recordings starting 1904 when the first Artists from the South were recorded. This would include classical, folk, Theatre and early cinema recordings of that era, as also non commercial recordings like voices of common Indians, speeches of leaders etc that some companies from Europe made. In the long run, of course the idea is to expand beyond South India and create a central repository for all kinds of recordings and genres including from other parts of India. Headquartered in Bangalore, AIM would begin operations by September this year which would also involve the launch of a Website that would post these digitized clips regularly.

Since the goal of the Archive is to ensure that these rare treasures of our past are not only preserved but also reach out to the maximum number of people, dissemination is an important component. The website is a major tool through the clips would be made available to people right from the comfort of their homes. In addition, brief biographical details of the artists, vintage photographs, gramophone sleeves etc would also be put up there.The Archive seeks to also set up kiosks at important venues like sabhas in major cities, in schools and Universities to increase the reach of these recordings and also make people familiar about this era of 1900-1940 which is what the bulk of the clips would belong to. It hopes to conduct guided listening sessions and curate theme based exhibitions in the long run after it has built up a suitable corpus to achieve this objective.

The Times of India did a curtain raiser on the Archive- the link of which is shared below.
http://www1.lite.epaper.timesofindia.co ... I&max=true

I have been lucky to gain the goodwill of several record collectors across India who have joined hands in this project. The Archive is also guided by an eminent Board of Advisors: Chinmaya Gharekhan, President of IGNCA, Delhi, eminent filmmaker Mr Shyam Benegal, Bharatanatyam exponent Smt Alarmel Valli, musicologist and scholar (formerly with ITC SRA Kolkata) Pt. Vijay Kichlu, renowned musicians Smt Shyamala G. Bhave, Smt Bombay Jayashri, Dr Jayanthi Kumaresh and Smt Lalith Rao, Bharatanatyam exponent and dance critic Smt Nandini Ramani, Ms. Arundhati Ghosh of India Foundation for Arts and Mr. Bhaskar Mitra of Sangeet Ashram, Kolkata.

Understandly, this is a mammoth task and I seek the support of many like-minded individuals on this Forum. Once the website is ready i will certainly post the details here and seek your feedback. In the meanwhile, if anyone has or knows people who have gramophone records or old LP's that need to be digitized, please do drop me an email either on vikram.sampath@gmail.com or through my website http://www.vikramsampath.com

Thanks and regards
Vikram.

Respected Sri Vikram Sampath,

I have recently registered as a member of this forum

I am a Gramophone-fan. Discs of 78 rpm as well as LPs and EALPs have fascinated me.I not only love the music but also the design and blurbs on the Jacket of records/the Record labels of HMV.COLUMBIA,ODEON,TWIN,BROADCAST,HUTCHINSON/NEW THEATRES/etc.
More over I am of the view, that these records, particularly the 78 RPM ones, bring out,to a great extent, the best in the Vidwans of yore, because of the time constraint ! Some of the Senior Vidwans who receive the Honours & Awards, had been and are still, past their prime and so their performances on the 78 rpms happen to be more representative of their original music than their performances at the time of being recognised by the institutions/Organisations etc.
Now, my question is --- Where do we stand when such songs are recorded in the Archives with reference to Copyrights Act.? I have a recollection that recently there has been a court judgement that the copyright benefit goes to the owner ie the producer of a film(not the singer or evn the music director) if it is a film song. In case of individual records, will the copyright belong to the performer(s) or the Recording Company? Finally, when a copyright is obtained ,when does it expire? Can it be renewed?
Personally, I have a collection of records, which I consider to be a choice and rare one. No doubt I have already converted the Analog to .mp3 and burnt data dvds ready to be uploaded on a blog, so that it could be made available to music lovers and posterity. After this job is over, I may present my entire collection to this Archive.The expectation would be that they would be carefully preserved and handled with loving care.
I have read in the Indian Express, in its weekly supplement two decades ago, an article by another private collector and connoisseur of music
Sri V A K Ranga Rao (resident of PYCROFTS GARDEN ROAD) who had expressed his desire to institute a Trust or Foundation for preserving this music. He should be around 75 years of age and lives in Chennai. You may check up with him. SRUTI magazine is another source which can furnish more particulars in this quest. In case our area is futher expanded to include Hindustani Classical and light music as well as Bhajans/Thumris/Dadras/Abhangs, we can get more volunteers from other parts of the country.
One member has suggested that some shops which were selling old records in the erstwhile Moore Market,have since been relocated in the new place. In Mumbai, there is a place called Chor Bazar; in Delhi, there is a Mina Bazar situated opposite to Red fort near the beginning of Chandni Chowk and in Calcutta there used to be some shops in the Free School Street area; These are some places where old records are still available. Of late there is a new interest among people to go for Record players and LPs and so the cost of these records have again shot up.

In Rhythm House Fort Mumbai, New LPs are again available on sale and the cost is around Rs 600/-per Record. (Just like Rim-less spectacles being replaced by spectcles with colourful frames!) Requesting our knowledgable members to share their ideas and wishing your initiative all success,ANSapthagireesan---Aug 08, 2012

[Sapthagiri]

Dear all,

In today’s modern age with technology making its presence felt in every walk of life, especially in the field of music and audio recording, it is ironic that is almost impossible to listen to the earliest recordings of our music right from the wax cylinder, gramophone shellacs (78 RPMs) and vinyl LP eras unless one has the required player or already digitized format of the records. A lot of these rare recordings which capture the voices of our ancestors are depleting at an alarmingly rapid rate. Digitization of these records and preserving of this music for posterity and making them easily and electronically available to musicians, researchers, students of music and interested public is the need of the hour. It is to achieve this hallowed objective that the Archive of Indian Music (AIM) has been established as a private and not-for-profit Trust that can help conserve the gramophone recordings and bring them back into circulation.

The plan was to begin with South Indian recordings starting 1904 when the first Artists from the South were recorded. This would include classical, folk, Theatre and early cinema recordings of that era, as also non commercial recordings like voices of common Indians, speeches of leaders etc that some companies from Europe made. In the long run, of course the idea is to expand beyond South India and create a central repository for all kinds of recordings and genres including from other parts of India. Headquartered in Bangalore, AIM would begin operations by September this year which would also involve the launch of a Website that would post these digitized clips regularly.

Since the goal of the Archive is to ensure that these rare treasures of our past are not only preserved but also reach out to the maximum number of people, dissemination is an important component. The website is a major tool through the clips would be made available to people right from the comfort of their homes. In addition, brief biographical details of the artists, vintage photographs, gramophone sleeves etc would also be put up there.The Archive seeks to also set up kiosks at important venues like sabhas in major cities, in schools and Universities to increase the reach of these recordings and also make people familiar about this era of 1900-1940 which is what the bulk of the clips would belong to. It hopes to conduct guided listening sessions and curate theme based exhibitions in the long run after it has built up a suitable corpus to achieve this objective.

The Times of India did a curtain raiser on the Archive- the link of which is shared below.
http://www1.lite.epaper.timesofindia.co ... I&max=true

I have been lucky to gain the goodwill of several record collectors across India who have joined hands in this project. The Archive is also guided by an eminent Board of Advisors: Chinmaya Gharekhan, President of IGNCA, Delhi, eminent filmmaker Mr Shyam Benegal, Bharatanatyam exponent Smt Alarmel Valli, musicologist and scholar (formerly with ITC SRA Kolkata) Pt. Vijay Kichlu, renowned musicians Smt Shyamala G. Bhave, Smt Bombay Jayashri, Dr Jayanthi Kumaresh and Smt Lalith Rao, Bharatanatyam exponent and dance critic Smt Nandini Ramani, Ms. Arundhati Ghosh of India Foundation for Arts and Mr. Bhaskar Mitra of Sangeet Ashram, Kolkata.

Understandly, this is a mammoth task and I seek the support of many like-minded individuals on this Forum. Once the website is ready i will certainly post the details here and seek your feedback. In the meanwhile, if anyone has or knows people who have gramophone records or old LP's that need to be digitized, please do drop me an email either on vikram.sampath@gmail.com or through my website http://www.vikramsampath.com

Thanks and regards
Vikram.

Respected Sri Vikram Sampath,

I have recently registered as a member of this forum

I am a Gramophone-fan. Discs of 78 rpm as well as LPs and EALPs have fascinated me.I not only love the music but also the design and blurbs on the Jacket of records/the Record labels of HMV.COLUMBIA,ODEON,TWIN,BROADCAST,HUTCHINSON/NEW THEATRES/etc.
More over I am of the view, that these records, particularly the 78 RPM ones, bring out,to a great extent, the best in the Vidwans of yore, because of the time constraint ! Some of the Senior Vidwans who receive the Honours & Awards, had been and are still, past their prime and so their performances on the 78 rpms happen to be more representative of their original music than their performances at the time of being recognised by the institutions/Organisations etc.
Now, my question is --- Where do we stand when such songs are recorded in the Archives with reference to Copyrights Act.? I have a recollection that recently there has been a court judgement that the copyright benefit goes to the owner ie the producer of a film(not the singer or evn the music director) if it is a film song. In case of individual records, will the copyright belong to the performer(s) or the Recording Company? Finally, when a copyright is obtained ,when does it expire? Can it be renewed?
Personally, I have a collection of records, which I consider to be a choice and rare one. No doubt I have already converted the Analog to .mp3 and burnt data dvds ready to be uploaded on a blog, so that it could be made available to music lovers and posterity. After this job is over, I may present my entire collection to this Archive.The expectation would be that they would be carefully preserved and handled with loving care.
I have read in the Indian Express, in its weekly supplement two decades ago, an article by another private collector and connoisseur of music
Sri V A K Ranga Rao (resident of PYCROFTS GARDEN ROAD) who had expressed his desire to institute a Trust or Foundation for preserving this music. He should be around 75 years of age and lives in Chennai. You may check up with him. SRUTI magazine is another source which can furnish more particulars in this quest. In case our area is futher expanded to include Hindustani Classical and light music as well as Bhajans/Thumris/Dadras/Abhangs, we can get more volunteers from other parts of the country.
One member has suggested that some shops which were selling old records in the erstwhile Moore Market,have since been relocated in the new place. In Mumbai, there is a place called Chor Bazar; in Delhi, there is a Mina Bazar situated opposite to Red fort near the beginning of Chandni Chowk and in Calcutta there used to be some shops in the Free School Street area; These are some places where old records are still available. Of late there is a new interest among people to go for Record players and LPs and so the cost of these records have again shot up.

In Rhythm House Fort Mumbai, New LPs are again available on sale and the cost is around Rs 600/-per Record. (Just like Rim-less spectacles being replaced by spectcles with colourful frames!) Requesting our knowledgable members to share their ideas and wishing your initiative all success,ANSapthagireesan---Aug 08, 2012

[Vikramsampath]

Hello all,

Sorry for a very delayed reponse on this as i am not too regular on this forum unfortunately! A very sincere thanks to everyone-- varsha, rshankar, Arasi ji, PUNARVASU, RSachi, harimau, Mr Sapthagireesan and others- for their enthusiastic response and highly valuable suggestions! The website of the Archive is in the final stage of production and by this month end i might have the beta version ready with about 1000 odd clips contributed by several people, up and running. It would be a healthy mix of Carnatic, Hindustani, Theatre, early Cinema music. From the Carnatic front in the first round looking at putting in sample clips of artists like Ananthalakshmi Sadagopan, Ariyakudi Ramanuja Iyengar, Bidaram Krishnappa, B Rachappa of Mysore, B Devendrappa of Mysore, Bangalore Nagaratnamma, Salem Godavari, Coimbatore Thayi, Dhanakoti Ammal of Kanchipuram, Bangalore D Subbaramayya, Radha-Jayalakshmi, Chembai, Chittoor Subramania Pillai, DKP, Bangalore Thayi, Dandapani Desikar, KB Sundarambal, Mysore Adi lakshmi, Nagaraja Rao (Flute), Veena Dhanam, Palani Vijayalakshmi, SG Kittappa, Sembannarkoil Ramaswamy Pillai (Nadaswaram), TN Manikkam, TM Kader Batcha of Woriyur to name JUST a few. As we start the digitization with the new equipment, i am sure this list would expand as also the quality of the output of the sound from the machinery which is rather impressive. Will post the website here for your valued feedback and comments. Would also invite any kind of contribution of articles, trivia, photos etc of these artists featured which could go up on the website as a value-add to the music clips. Early Sept is when the website is expected to officially go live.

Specifically to Shri Sapthagireesan, thanks a lot for your very kind offer, Please rest assured that your contribution will be most valued and will be treated and preserved with great care and love! That is exactly what AIM is seeking to do anyway. Reg the Copyrights--these are all in the public realm and out of copyright being pre-1947 recordings largely. 60 yrs after the date of publishing, the companies forefeit the copyright on the product. We can discuss more on this offline if you wish.my email id is vikram.sampath@gmail.com. I have a copyright lawyer on board for the Trust as being a mere author my own understanding of legalese is next to non-existent!
I am glad to know that respected Sri Ranga Rao is finally making plans for passing on his treasures to the future generations. A welcome move indeed, if it happens! It is a life-time of struggle collecting these for him and i fully empathize the feeling of protectiveness (which is common among all record collectors) especially since most ppl approach him and others like him as predators pouncing on what is so invaluable for them rather than engaging them as partners. Since i happen to know Rao Garu, if he decides to collaborate with AIM, i would be the happiest.
And yes, the idea is to expand to all genres--Hindustani, bhajans, dadras, folk et al that you mention as i strongly believe an Archivist should be as neutral as possible and not let his/her own bias and interests cloud the judgement of what is being preserved!

Once again many thanks to all of you for your warm wishes and suggestions.

Regards
Vikram.

[Sreeni Rajarao]

Vikram,

Looking forward to the Beta version that is going to be available soon!

It is exciting to even read the names you have mentioned! Soon, I will be able to listen to the music of Sri B Devendrappa and Sri D Subbaramayya - two artists I have seen in person (when I was a kid), but did not have a chance to listen to their music.