I have been a big fan of Flipkart, the leader in the budding online retail stores in India. I have been even bigger fan of its Digital Music Store - called Flyte. Sadly, I got an email from Flipkart that they are shutting down Flyte in June 2013. A beautiful attempt to fight Music piracy in India bites dust.

Flyte was amazing. It allowed you to buy Music from its rich collection of Music Library and download the same on your computers/laptops/phones at a very low price- typically 1/5th of the physical Audio CD of the same album. You could even buy individual tracks typically at Rs. 5 to 15. You couldn't get a more economical option to buy "Genuine" Music. But who wants to buy Genuine Music here, where there are tons of options available for free Pirated Music?

Flipkart hasn't said anything about the reasons behind this decision of pulling off the plug just within a year after its launch. My guess is that even after making Music dirt cheap and affordable, it could not change the very culture within Music listeners in India which is against buying genuine Music by paying even a small money. The volumes generated on the store may not have been sufficient for a viable business.

It is such an irony I feel. On one hand, there is certain class of the society that has seen huge prosperity within last one decade. This class has enough money to buy expensive cars, international holidays, branded watches, designer clothing, parties and  dinners at exotic places and so on. But they can't spend few bucks on buying genuine tracks of the very Music they love. Is Rs 35 too much a money for an album of R. D. Burman? Does the Legend not deserve a price which is even lesser than a plate of Dosa for his genius?

When will our society understand that piracy is akin to shop lifting? When will our authorities wake up and take some serious actions against rampant piracy done in bright day light, on the streets- often next to police stations? When will the so called Music lovers in this country realize that piracy is an insult to the Musician whose album they just downloaded from Torrent?

I hope we get answers to these painful questions some day.