In the northeastern Indian state of Assam, a unique cultural treasure trove has taken shape within the walls of a private residence. Vishal Kalita, a 30-year-old music enthusiast, has spent over a decade collecting and preserving an extensive archive of music cassettes, CDs, and rare posters, turning his home in Guwahati into an unofficial museum dedicated to the rich tapestry of music history. His collection, which opened to the public recently, offers a rare glimpse into the bygone era of physical music media, with a special focus on the works of Zubeen Garg, an iconic singer and composer from Assam who passed away last month in Singapore, leaving a void in the hearts of millions of fans.
Kalita’s passion for collecting obsolete music tapes has led him on journeys across India, where he meticulously sources tapes that are increasingly rare and fragile. Among the thousands of items in his collection, it is the extensive discography of Zubeen Garg that draws most visitors. Garg, who enjoyed a prolific career spanning over three decades and who sang in more than 40 languages and dialects, was a beloved figure in Assam and beyond. Kalita proudly houses roughly 38,000 songs by Garg, many of which are not available anywhere else today. The significance of Kalita’s collection was underscored when Garg himself visited the collector’s home on 16 September, just days before his death, and remarked that the archive revived memories of his “long-forgotten” works.
Kalita’s efforts have become part of a larger movement among Garg’s fans and associates to preserve and promote the singer’s musical legacy. They are working to make Garg’s vast body of work more accessible, particularly through online streaming platforms, while also striving to ensure that royalties and financial benefits reach the late singer’s family. However, this noble mission faces significant challenges, primarily due to complications around music ownership and copyright laws, which are often convoluted and murky in India, as in many other parts of the world.
The complexities around music rights are a global phenomenon. Internationally, artists like Taylor Swift have famously re-recorded their albums to regain control over their music after disputes over ownership. Many artists have established their own labels to retain full or partial control over their work and to secure fair compensation. In India, the issue is equally fraught, with contracts historically favoring producers and labels over artists, leaving creators with limited rights and revenues.
This complexity became glaringly apparent to Garg’s fans shortly after his death, when many tried to find one of his most popular songs, “Mayabini Ratir Bukut,” on a major streaming platform, only to discover it was missing. Although the song was briefly uploaded by a user, it was soon removed due to licensing and copyright disputes. The tangled ownership of Garg’s songs—many of which have unclear or contested rights—makes it difficult to legally upload and distribute his music online.
Manas Barua, a filmmaker and close friend of Garg, explained that hundreds of the singer’s songs have ambiguous ownership, complicating efforts to make them widely available. Indian copyright law, governed by the Copyright Act of 1957, separates copyright into three categories: lyrics, musical composition, and sound recordings. While lyricists and composers are deemed the "authors" and thus the first owners of their respective works, producers are considered the first owners of sound recordings. This often results in a labyrinth of rights holders, with ownership and licensing rights transferred through various agreements over time, sometimes with little documentation.
Garg's career exemplifies this complexity. While some of his songs are owned by his own label, many from earlier decades were owned by producers and distributors who historically transferred copyrights without monetary transactions. Back then, the music industry’s revenue mainly came from physical sales of cassettes and CDs, so producers relied heavily on distributors. The advent of private radio stations, and later online streaming platforms, dramatically changed the economic landscape, making music licensing a more lucrative and complex business.
Music journalist Anurag Tagat notes that the rise of digital streaming has shifted the focus from merely collecting royalties to clarifying and securing ownership rights. This shift is crucial for artists’ financial sustainability and control over their work. However, in Garg’s case, many songs were never digitized, putting them at risk of being lost forever. Moreover, the ownership of his recordings is scattered among multiple parties, some of whom are no longer reachable due to death or business