The Indian market is one of the hottest topics in the industry right now. The news of Spotify and Youtube Music entering the local market, the price war that followed — as we already mentioned, India will probably become the main battleground of the global streaming industry in the years to come. The local market will attract more and more interest in the future, so here we go. Here’s everything you need to know about the Indian music market.
Structure of the Indian Music Industry
With its primarily young, rapidly growing population — currently at 1.3 billion — many music professionals are now looking to India as the music industry’s next great frontier. The revenues of the Indian music industry are on a rapid rise for the last few years — primarily driven by the country’s growing online population. However, India’s massive film industry still plays an outsized role in the music business — with 80% of the country’s music revenue reportedly generated by soundtracks for Bollywood films. That is for various reasons, which we’ll explore down the road — but for now let’s start with a couple of quick statistics to underline the structure of the market and get everyone on the same page. First, we need to review the revenue of the industry, split between 3 main core business: recording, live and publishing.
1. Live Industry
As usual, the estimation of live revenues is by far the trickiest part of sizing the industry. Due to the fragmented nature of the live business, comprehensive, accurate quotes are hard to come by.
- Drawing on the information disclosed throughout the Indian Music Convention, PwC data, and industry discussions the total revenues of live business can be put at around $280 million
- In line with PwC estimations, ticket sales accounted for 30% of all live revenues, while the rest is split up between brand sponsorships, private events, merch sales, and so forth.
2. Recording Industry
- According to IFPI, the recording industry generated $153.1 million in 2018, up 17,1% from 2017
- In 2018, streaming revenue went up 22,3%, with streaming accounting for 69% of all recording revenues
- Reportedly, around 80% of music consumption is attributed to film music
3. Publishing Industry
- The publishing in India is still in its cradle: up until 2012, the Music Copyright Act of India assigned copyrights to film producers instead of the actual songwriters.
- Although the necessary amendments have been made, the publishing pipeline is still extremely underdeveloped, and most of the artists don’t earn any royalties
- Royalties to songwriters and composers made up less than 1% of the total industry’s revenue, or $4 million
Summing up the revenues across the three main sub-industries, we estimate the scope of the Indian music market at $443 million.
With the country positioned 15th in the 2018 IFPI rankings, local music professionals are aiming to break the market into the top 10 by 2022. That means that the industry will have not only to keep up its current growth but accelerate continuously in the coming years. However, what will drive this expansion?
Indian Music Industry Stats: India’s Digital Revolution By the Numbers
In 2018, India became the 5th biggest economy in the world in terms of the current GDP. It’s the fastest-growing economy out of the top-10, projected 7% CAGR up until 2023. This almost unprecedented economic growth is powered by the population of 1,35 billion people, which keeps on rising — India is expected to overtake China in total residents and become the world’s most populated country by 2027. At the same time, that population is extremely young: according to the 2011 census, more than 52% of India’s population was under 25 y.o.
Near-record economic growth, young population (and we all know what’s music industry’s primary demographic) — that’s all good news for the Indian music professionals. However, there is a single trend in India that means more to the music business than anything else — the country’s rapid digitalization.
Back in 2016, a new 4G telecom service Reliance Jio has entered the Indian market. Its mission statement was to “provide broadband for every Indian”, mirroring the Digital India initiative, launched by the government earlier the same year. To achieve that, Jio hit the market with an extremely aggressive strategy, starting a price war amongst the local telecom providers.
Just two years later, in 2018, India became the country with the cheapest mobile internet in the world. According to Cable, 1 GB of mobile data in India now costs just $0,26 — for comparison, the average in the US is 47,5 times greater at $12,37/GB. In three years, from 2015 to 2018, the country’s internet population grew more than 60% to 566 million.