India sees double-digit growth in recorded music revenue; T-series tops with five songs and albums

Indian recorded music is making its presence felt on the global music market and the proof of this is the strong growth in traffic across different sources of music like audio OTT (over the top) platforms, video streaming platforms.

According to a recently released IFPI Global Music Report, Indian recorded music industry has witnessed a double-digit growth rate at 18.7 percent in 2019, making India one of the biggest markets in Asia.

India’s recorded music industry revenues increased to USD 181.4 million (Rs 1,378 crore) in 2019.

While India has retained its rank at 15 from last year, it is estimated that the country is likely to break into top 10 music markets globally by 2022.

Amid platforms that offer recorded music, ad-supported audio streams saw 41.6 percent growth last year as compared to 2018. Performance rights, subscription audio streams and video streams saw 22.7 percent, 5.3 percent and 34.8 percent growth respectively.

In terms of numbers, ad-supported audio streams saw an increase in revenue from USD 36.7 million (Rs 279 crore approximately) in 2018 to USD 51.9 million (Rs 394 crore) in 2019. As for video streams, the revenue grew to USD 37.1 million (Rs 282 crore) in 2019 from USD 27.5 million (Rs 209 crore) in 2018.

Performance rights grew from USD 15.1 million (Rs 114 crore) in 2018 to USD 18.5 million (Rs 140 crore) last year.

The report also mentioned the top songs from the Indian market in 2019 which includes Dhvani Bhanushali’s Vaaste, Rowdy Baby, Filhaal, O Saki Saki, Ve Maahi, among others.

What is interesting is that among the top 10 songs, as many as five songs belong to T-Series music label.

Also, in the top 10 albums list of 2019, Bhushan Kumar's company five entries. Luka Chuppi and Kabir Singh stand at rank one and two respectively. Other albums in the top 10 list that belong to T-series include Batla House, Bharat and Pati Patni Aur Woh.

If we go by Deloitte’s 2019 report titled Economic impact of the recorded music industry in India, the industry directly provides employment to 1,460 people.

Beyond the direct employment, there are members of the Indian Performing Rights Society (IPRS) and Phonographic Performance Limited (PPL) societies. These members are firms and individuals registered with the respective societies. The IPRS has 4,164 registered members, including authors, composers and owner publishers. PPL has 325 registered members.