Magnasound was an Indian record company that specialized in

Indian classical music Indian classical music is the art music, classical music of the Indian subcontinent. It is generally described using terms like ''Shastriya Sangeet'' and ''Marg Sangeet''. It has two major traditions: the North Indian classical music known as ...

Indian rock Indian rock is a music genre in India that may incorporate elements of Indian music with rock music, and is often topically India-centric. While India is more often known for its ( northern and southern) classical music, filmi, Bollywood mu ...

and

Indipop Indian pop music, also known as I-pop or Indi-pop, refers to pop music produced in India that is independent from filmi soundtracks for Indian cinema. Indian pop is closely linked to Bollywood, Tollywood, Pollywood, Kollywood and the Asian U ...

. It was distributed by OMI Music Inc. Shashi Gopal was the

managing director A chief executive officer (CEO), also known as a chief executive or managing director, is the top-ranking corporate officer charged with the management of an organization, usually a company or a nonprofit organization. CEOs find roles in variou ...

of Magnasound.

History

Shashi Gopal founded Magnasound in 1989 with his wife Kalpana and brother-in-law Madhav Das. The three launched the company with their life savings, which totaled Rs 6 lakhs. In the early 1990s, the company gained a reputation for signing young artists like

Daler Mehndi Daler Singh (born 18 August 1967), better known as Daler Mehndi, is an Indian singer, songwriter, author, and record producer. He has helped to make Bhangra (music), Bhangra popular worldwide, as well as Indian pop music independent of Bollywoo ...

Baba Sehgal Harjeet Singh "Baba" Sehgal, is an Indian rapper. He is widely acclaimed to be the first Indian rapper. He is also involved in various other areas of the entertainment industry and works across media in several different languages. He was a cont ...

, and

Alisha Chinai Alisha Chinai (born 18 March 1965) is an Indian pop singer known for her Indi-pop albums as well as playback singing in Hindi cinema. She began her singing career with the album ''Jadoo'' in 1985, and by the 1990s she had become known as the ' ...

, as well as acclaimed rock bands

Rock Machine The Rock Machine Motorcycle Club (RMMC) or Rock Machine is an international outlaw motorcycle club founded in Montreal, Quebec, Canada in 1986. It has eighteen Canadian chapters spread across seven provinces. It also has nine chapters in the Un ...

and 13AD Already established artists like

A. R. Rahman Allah Rakha Rahman (; born A. S. Dileep Kumar; 6 January 1967), also known by the initialism ARR, is an Indian music composer, record producer, singer, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, and philanthropist known for his works in Indian cinem ...

and

Asha Bhosle Asha Bhosle (; ; born 8 September 1933) is an Indian playback singer, entrepreneur, actress and television personality who predominantly works in Indian cinema. Known for her versatility, she has been described in the media as one of the ...

also released albums for the label. Magnasound began to concentrate more on classical artists. Carnatic vocalist

Bombay Jayashri "Bombay" Jayashri Ramnath is an Indian Carnatic vocalist, singer, and musician. She has sung songs in multiple languages, including for Tamil, Telugu, Kannada, Malayalam, Hindi and English movies. Born into a family of musicians, Jayashri ...

became its flagship classical artist when she signed with Magnasound in 1994. Magnasound was also one of the first Indian labels to concentrate on music videos, taking advantage of the new MTV India channel. In 2003, the company was declared bankrupt and was defunct.

Bayshore

After Magnasound wound up in 2003, Madhav launched another label called Bayshore Music before he moved to print and edited a film magazine called ''South Side'', for

GV Films GV Films is an Indian film production and distribution company headed by Ishari K. Ganesh. The firm had been a leading production studio in the Tamil film industry in the 1990s and had been founded by G. Venkateswaran as Sujatha Films in 1986 ...

Discography

This is the incomplete list

Notable artists

A.R. Rahman Allah Rakha Rahman (; born A. S. Dileep Kumar; 6 January 1967), also known by the initialism ARR, is an Indian music composer, record producer, singer, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, and philanthropist known for his works in Indian cinema ...

Bela Shende Bela Shende is an Indian playback singer. She performed several songs in Bollywood and other film Indian industries. "Mann Mohana" from the film ''Jodhaa Akbar'', "Su Che" from the film '' What's Your Raashee?'', "Wajle Ki Baara" and " Apsara Aa ...

* Bhitali Das *

Bina Mistry Bina Mistry is a popular Hindi and Gujarati singer based in the United Kingdom. Mistry was born in Tanzania, of Indian parents. Later she moved to London, where she became a merchant banker. Her interest in Hindi music led to a job as a DJ and r ...

Hema Sardesai Hema Sardesai is an Indian playback singer and lyricist based in Goa, India. Born in Bombay, Maharashtra, she shot to fame in 1997 with songs from movies like '' Sapnay'', ''Biwi No.1'' and '' Jaanam Samjha Karo''. Early life Hema Sardesai w ...

* Jasmine Bharucha *

Kumar Sanu Kedarnath Bhattacharya (born 20 October 1957), professionally known as Kumar Sanu, is a leading Indian playback singer who primarily sings in Hindi film songs. He is widely regarded as the Melody King of Bollywood. He holds the record for winn ...

* Mehnaz Hoosein *

P. Unnikrishnan Parakkal Unnikrishnan (born 9 July 1966) is an Indian Carnatic vocalist and playback singer. Early life and background Unnikrishnan was born to K. Radhakrishnan and Dr. Harini Radhakrishnan in Palakkad, Kerala. The family home, Kesari Kuteer ...

* Raageshwari *

Sagarika Mukherjee Sagarika Mukherjee, also known as Saag, is an Indian singer and actress. She sings mainly in Hindi language, Hindi, Assamese language, Assamese and Bengali language, Bengali language songs but has also sung in Tamil language, Tamil and Telugu ...

* Shantanu Mukherjee *

Shweta Mohan Shweta Mohan (born 19 November 1985) is an Indian playback singer. She has recorded songs for films and albums in all the four south Indian cinema namely Tamil, Malayalam, Telugu and Kannada, besides few Hindi films and has established hersel ...

Shweta Shetty Shweta Shetty (also known as Shwetaa in nickname) is an Indian-born German pop singer known for her albums and for her contributions to Bollywood film soundtracks. Life and career Shetty's album, ''Johnny Joker'', was a success. She was awarde ...

Sonu Nigam Sonu Nigam (born 30 July 1973) is an Indian playback singer, music director, dubbing artist and actor. He is one of the most versatile singers and widest vocal ranges in the history of Indian music. His songs vary from romantic to break-up, cla ...

* Suchitra Krishnamoorti *

Suchitra Pillai Suchitra Pillai (born 27 August 1970) is an Indian actress, model, anchor and VJ. A graduate in electronic engineering from the Fr. Conceicao Rodrigues College of Engineering, Bandra (West), Mumbai, she chose a career in arts over engineering ...

Udit Narayan Udit Narayan Jha (born 1 December 1955) is an Nepali and Indian playback singer whose songs have been featured mainly in Hindi cinema, Hindi films. He has also sung in various other languages including Telugu language, Telugu, Kannada, Tamil ...

Zubeen Garg Zubeen Garg (born Zubeen Borthakur ; 18 November 1972) is an Indian singer–songwriter, composer, lyricist, music director, music producer, actor, film director, film producer, screenwriter, poet and philanthropist. He primarily works for and ...

References

Indian record labels Record labels established in 1989 Record labels disestablished in 2003 Defunct companies of India {{india-record-label-stub