A new start-up company is on its way up in the Silicon Valley—and it’s not another software company.  iMusti.com is a new portal for both digital Indian music lovers and artists.  The site streams and sells licensed music from various genres including classical, meditation, ghazals, religious discourses, regional favorites and Bollywood pop for use on personal computers.  The company aspires to build the largest, most comprehensive archive of music for Indian music enthusiasts worldwide.

“India has created arguably the most diverse collection of music in the world,” said S. Khandwala, President and CEO of iMusti.  “My company aims to organize and archive the vast collections and make them accessible to millions of people all over the world,” he said.

Khandwala, whose passions include both India and music, always wanted to collect high-quality content and organize it in an easily accessible platform.  “India has produced very high caliber music content for many centuries but it has not been easy to access,” Khandwala said.  “Internet technology and mobile platforms have started to reach a very wide audience worldwide so the time is right to start collecting such items,” he said.

The maverick CEO’s vision for iMusti is driven by his desire to archive some of India’s rare collections that are extremely rich but have never been distributed or recognized.  “A lot of content is in danger of being lost due to old technology or lack of management,” he said.  “iMusti will make sure these collections are preserved for future generations to enjoy for years to come.” Khandwala says he will be successful even if he brings out a miniscule portion of the vast content India has produced in the last few centuries.

This entrepreneur’s big dreams are quickly becoming a reality.  Today, iMusti members are found in 35 different countries, the top regions being the Unites States, India, Europe, Malaysia, Singapore and Australia.  What makes iMusti unique is its ubiquity.  Anyone interested in the Indian music scene across the world, old or new, can stream, purchase and download albums.  “We want to make it easy for entire families, from grandparents to grandchildren, to use our site to find the music they love, and to take pleasure in its pure digital sound quality,” Khandwala said.

iMusti is different from free music downloading sites because it is a legal provider of copyrighted material.  Part of iMusti’s mission is to support artists and record labels, to reward them for their work, and thus empower them to produce high-caliber music.  According to Khandwala, a subscription based model is the only way to do this.  At the same time, the company intends to keep its costs low to subscribers, enabling music lovers from all over the world to enjoy a comprehensive collection of music at very nominal subscriptions.

iMusti collects monthly or yearly subscription fees and in return, pays royalty to each copyright owner based on access.  Monthly subscription varies from $1 for one hour to $9.99 monthly and $99.99 for yearly subscription. The download and purchase price varies from track to track and is typically set by the copyright owner.