Calcutta, May 6: In the mood for a favourite song but don’t have a CD?

Just log on to the Internet.

Saregama, owner of the largest musical repertoire in India, is ready to launch its website, from where one can download more than half a million songs.

The portal, which the company claims is the largest in Asia, is “ready for release”, said Subroto Chattopadhyay, managing director of Saregama. The site will go online at the end of this month.

The launch will culminate a long effort to digitise the songs, over which Saregama holds copyrights. The firm has digitised around two lakh songs and has uploaded them on the site.

The company has also managed to woo other music companies into this venture, giving consumers a large range of choice.

“We will have 4,70,000 tracks from other companies on the portal,” Chattopadhyay said. While Saregama is yet to decide on a pricing strategy, the MD said consumers would pay Rs 12 for every download.

“You can use credit cards for the transaction,” he added.

The company expects good business considering the popularity of downloads to devices such as iPods.

Creating a portal is one of the new channels of revenue for the company.

It also has arrangements with handset companies and FM channels.

Saregama’s focus on the virtual medium comes at a time when the physical mode of music sale — cassettes and CDs — is undergoing a transformation. The company says cassettes are giving way to CDs. In the not-so-distant future, cassettes might become extinct.

Besides the music business, the company has also produced films. It is also keen on content for television, artist management and event management.

Saregama has flagged off a Band Talent hunt in Chennai and Hyderabad.

It is also launching movies in Bengali, English and Hindi through its subsidiary, Saregama Films.

The company recorded a revenue growth of 14 per cent at Rs 135.5 crore for the year ended March 31 against Rs 118.9 crore a year ago.

Its net profit stood at about Rs 14 crore against Rs 8.8 crore in the previous year.

Saregama’s net sales for the fourth quarter ended March 31 declined 24 per cent to Rs 19 crore compared with Rs 25 crore in the year-ago period.

The company’s net profit increased almost 156 per cent at Rs 4.31 crore against Rs 1.68 crore during the corresponding period in the previous year.

“We are now focussing on our bottomline. We expect a profit of about 40-50 per cent during 2007-08,” Chattopadhyay said.