With India opening up its economy to the world, there is a dramatic increase in the availability of products. Augmented with the growing ability of the Indian consumers to spend their disposable income, retailing in India is all set to converge with that of the rest of the world. The Indian consumer is now more conscious of international fashion. This will make the Indian retail sector the fastest growing sector in the future. Along with the growth of this sector, there is also an increase in consumers' preferences and choices. This study explores the key factors responsible for customer preferences for music retailing in India. The preferences identified in this study will help the retailers in designing their services and product mix, in accordance with those preferred by customers. The technique of factor analysis identifies five major factors: Product factor, service factor, promotional factor, convenience factor and luxury factor. Product, which is high on quality, variety and availability, is found to be the most preferred one by the customers. Hence, prudent merchandise and value-added features will make music retailing more attractive for investors.

“Organized Retailing presupposes a retailer’s ability to manage or more importantly influence a set of supply chain variables in a commercially viable and sustainable way”1 Organized Retailing during the last one decade has emerged as one of the sunrise industries in India, closely following the Information Technology and Biotechnology industries. Several large chains have entered the bandwagon and have achieved fair to significant success. Indian retailing has evolved over the past decade, from largely an ‘informal’ and disorganized marketplace to an increasingly organized industry, at least in the urban India. The changes in the nation’s social structure like improvement of the economy, consumerism, urbanization and profusion of brands have been the main causal factors for the development of these modern formats. The boom in the sector started after liberalization measures were initiated in 1991 in the country. The Indian retail industry, which was traditionally dominated by small, family-run kirana stores, seems to have come of age. Traditional grocery stores have embraced the modern retail formats. Changing demographic structure, consumer psychology, increased purchasing power and the advent of plastic money are tempting the consumer to splurge more on shopping. The increasing number of nuclear families, double income households, working women, greater work pressure and increased commuting time have put the consumers under constant time pressure. The other equally important factors contributing to the changing Indian landscape are the increasing influence of children, gradual acceptance of frozen, semi-processed and processed foods by the Indian consumers, the growing influence of television on decision-making and improvement in literacy rates.

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