Hivewire #15: What will drive more Indian Artists On The World Stage?

The Industry must shift from a Bollywood-driven song economy to an Artist-first Economy

By Shashwat Hota and Srishti Das

“The notion of music being solely tied to films is evolving in India, with a growing number of artists releasing standalone albums and engaging in live performances which express their artistic vision beyond the confines of movie soundtracks.” - IMI Digital Music Study, 2023

The history of Bollywood in India is always intertwined with music, so much that it’s ability to use music as a marketing vehicle from the beginning is what the music industry has been as a whole for decades, before the first wave of Indie Pop in the 90s. This has led to the Indian music economy being shaped as a song/hit economy rather than one that prioritises the Artist. For instance, movie trailers would use the most catchy songs from the soundtrack album to attract a wider base of moviegoers. The song typically showcases the movie's theme, and “item songs” or dance numbers enticed people to watch the movie in theatres in the pre-digital era. After the movies are launched, the promotional tour would have the actors of the movie dance to these tunes. So, the audiences related the songs to the faces of these actors and not the musicians who created the piece of music. In many instances, we have found on Reddit and in personal experiences that non-South Asians are often disappointed when they learn that the actors in the movie are not the ones singing film songs. These practices are still prevalent in the film industry, if not at the same level.

Songs travelling faster than the Artists affect the fandom negatively

Listeners rarely look through an Artist’s discography to see if they liked their other songs, which was always deemed a by-product of movies. Back in the day, for an artist who wanted to make a music career, Bollywood was the only way to do so as nobody had the resources and studios and buying your equipment was really expensive, making that process inaccessible. Therefore, audiences had little information about who an artist was unless the artists were big names in the industry, such as Arijit Singh and Shreya Ghoshal, who as a matter of fact are some of the top 100 artists on Spotify in the world. Unless you were an avid music listener who made an effort to do some research on an artist, the song and the film reached a bigger audience than the artist. Thus, artists were and still are in the case of playback singing, an afterthought.

This is not just an Indian problem. “Calm Down” by Rema is a great example. India continues to be the second biggest market for Rema and the song.  However, the memes on Instagram around his India tour in 2023 drew the narrative that fans of the song did not know who actually sang the song.

Now that some artists have found their way into breaking out of the bubble and have begun to create strong, stable and distinct fanbases, the ecosystem to support these artists needs to and is slowly evolving. A great example of this is California-based Punjabi artist Talwinder, who, over a short period, has gathered a large youth audience across South Asia, using social media as a tool to stay connected with fans and creating an audio-first fandom that spills over onto every other platform Talwinder is live on. His debut album ‘Misfit’ saw an audio-first approach, with the whole album dropping on a single day with no lead-up singles or music videos. They will all come gradually, along with some big live shows around India, Australia and Canada. Talwinder knows how to pull his audience along, and there is much to learn from the young artists mobilising millions of fans around the globe.

Although the industry, outside of film music, is only a few decades old and is in its nascent stages, it has to figure out ways to provide a clear path for up-and-coming artists to go global. Taking notes from the past, Alisha Chinai was one of the first successful “artist first” experiments in the Indian music industry. Her album ‘Made In India’ garnered widespread fame in 1995 after its release, with its title track being the main driver of its success in the pre-digital era, where music videos and radio plays were the grand marketing tools. The iconic video is still etched in the mind of most Millennials. This album shaped India's independent pop scene in the 90’s and 2000’s. It had sales comparable to music from an Indian film.

Yes, it is true that to create an artist first industry, the work to be done is higher, but the payback certainly grows multi-fold over a period of time, while simultaneously creating longevity for artists. The only question is, who is responsible for this change? If you ask us, it’s a grand mix of things that starts in one place only, the Artist's vision, followed by the artist's teams to execute and enable this vision and finally, the support of streaming services and other platforms in believing in the artist's vision.

Streaming will increasingly rely on the artist-first approach over the song economy

As technology has improved, it has become cheaper for artists to make music. Firstly, they can sit at home and produce tracks by themselves. More importantly, streaming has made music available at a fraction of the cost compared to the physical era in terms of cassettes and CDs. Huge advances to make physicals and distribute them around the world don’t exist anymore; it is a click of a button, and maybe at a maximum of $20, you can get a song up to every store around the world. This decentralisation of music-related services and tools has led to the growth of the number of Independent Artists in the world and a populous country like India. In addition, many artists who seek to grow their audience and story look for freedom to create and drive their story their way, frequently being inspired by artists in more developed music markets such as the UK, US or Latin America that have an artist-first approach.

Last year, India ranked second in the number of streams globally on Spotify, even though the population at large still needs to be fully mobilised. This implies that the Indian consumption potential has not yet been fully met.  This potential has been utilised by certain artists like the Late Sidhu Moose Wala, Diljit Dosanjh, Divine, Rashmeet Kaur, Jonita Gandhi, Lisa Mishra, AP Dhillon, Talwiinder, Dabzee and more, who have garnered international recognition for their body of work. Their success as independent artists was because consumers invested in these artists due to the relatability of their entire catalogue of songs rather than one particular song. The dedicated fan bases of these artists enabled them to cut through the clutter of the song economy.

India's consumption patterns have led to a low willingness to pay for music

Growing up in the transition era of music consumption, I have seen piracy evolve parallelly with the shift from cassettes and CDs to the internet and smartphones and streaming. Original Cassettes that cost 50-150 INR ($0.59 - $1.78) were turned into mixtapes containing personal song choices. When CDs/DVDs entered the market, they facilitated the storage of hundreds of songs at a fraction of the cost. These two phases still required a small amount of money. In the next phase, with free music online and ample space to keep thousands of songs locally on desktops, the internet became the ultimate gratification portal for a consumer base that was already hesitant to pay for their music. It was only aggravated by smartphones, which put this music on a portable device.

When you compare this to the US, a regular CD-buying economy, people had to pay money to access one album. Now, they only have to pay a fraction of that to access all the music in the world. It’s a no-brainer, a value proposition that any average music consumer would pay for in the market. Even other markets in Southeast Asia, like Indonesia, have a low willingness to pay but drive high engagement even with ads. Maybe it is high time that the industry found its way into monetising engagement better, which comes back to the gap: How do we monetise fandom on streaming vs. monetising consumption?

We believe this is the critical question for music DSPs and the industry to address as the Global South rises with its own distinct consumption and engagement patterns. Inclusion and diversity go beyond simply bringing people of different backgrounds into the music industry — they also mean recognizing and catering to the cultural nuances that shape how various regions interact with music. This includes understanding regional genres, languages, and traditions that influence music preferences. As the Global South comes alive, the industry must adapt to serve these unique audiences. The time for this shift is here, and it's vital for driving growth and global engagement.

Check out the HIVEWIRE playlist by Shashwat - The Hive

One 'The Hive' is where our diverse team shares new music and trends from emerging markets. New additions this week:

ASAAN - Rishi Roy, Dabzee 

Bheegi - Shreea Kaul, Talal Qureshi 

KILL’EM - SOS, Ahmer, So Fire 

Kich Ka’ Liech - Octopizzo 

Name of God - Mustafa  

Interesting reads from last week from Shashwat:

>>> TikTok’s creator subscriptions point to the future of social platforms |Hanna Kahlert  | MIDiA Research 

TikTok is moving into the space of monetizing its offerings by providing a subscription model to its creators. In addition to the live-streaming subscription that was already active, they have introduced paid subscriptions, which allow followers to access exclusive content. Social media is increasingly becoming an entertainment-centric space, and monetizing seems to be the best way forward for all the stakeholders. TikTok and creators are getting a new source of revenue, followers are getting more content in return, and advertisers or video sponsors get their products promoted. 

>>>  UK recorded music exports hit record high of $964m in 2023 – but global share of consumption is shrinking | Daniel Tencer | Music Business Worldwide

The UK has recorded the highest music exports with a growth rate of 7.6%, but this was not enough for them to increase their share in the global music export pie. The main reason behind this is the falling share of music in the English language worldwide. Music from countries like Brazil, Mexico, France, and Nigeria is becoming more popular and eating into the share of English music. The fastest-growing market for UK music was India, with 26% YoY growth last year. This signifies a changing demand for music worldwide. 

>>>  US’s Federal Trade Commission finalises ‘click-to-cancel’ rule for subscription services | Mandy Dalugdug | Music Business Worldwide

The US Federal Trade Commission has finalised the “click-to-cancel” rule, which aims to simplify the process of cancelling subscriptions for users. This comes after user complaints increased from 42/day in 2021 to 70/day in 2024. The US sets a precedent for other countries to follow and bring in similar regulations for the benefit of users. The US has also been following in the footsteps of its Korean counterparts, who have imposed such regulatory requirements on both the domestic and foreign countries providing subscription services in the country. 

Hivewire is an independent music industry publication launched in June 2023 by Srishti Das and supported by Akriti, Shashwat Hota and Yatin Srivastava. This dynamic newsletter offers a unique perspective on the music industry, focusing on emerging markets and the rapidly growing music cultures gradually making their mark globally.