There is an interesting manner in which Aliya Curmally describes the people who gave customers recommendations at Rhythm House, the legendary musical store that shuttered in 2015. Curmally, producer of The Last Music Store, a documentary on the erstwhile Kala Ghoda landmark, calls each of them a “human Spotify”. “You discovered music by asking people who know more about the subject than you did. You’d ask for one song and get 10 recommendations,” she says about the pre-streaming services era, when looking for new albums meant relying on word-of-mouth information or browsing at a store, instead of depending on algorithms.

Megha Ramaswa and Aliya Curmally