India is at the world music expo MIDEM, in Cannes. There are 14 Indian companies participating at the expo. There are 17 companies from Singapore, 12 from China and two each from Malaysia and the Philippines. "China and India are two of the world's top markets in terms of mobile handset growth, with one billion cellphones apiece already, and digital penetration is "going through the roof" in both markets, Ajax Scott, publisher of the UK-based Music Week magazine, told a packed MIDEM conference in Cannes.

Though 3G phones have still to be launched in India, with 78 million mobile phone subscribers, the potential for generating digital music, video and cellphone revenues is huge, Neeraj Roy of India's Hungama Mobile told MidemNet participants.

With its colossal Bollywood film business, music on mobile phones will be dominated by songs made for movies, Roy noted. But Indian music looks to be on its way Westwards as Apple's iTunes, MSM Music and Napster have just snapped up a lot of this local music content to take it global. With 112 companies represented at this year's MIDEM, Japan, is one of the top ten countries exhibiting at the fair.