New Delhi: India’s expanding multilingual music economy is translating into stronger earnings for artists, with royalties generated by Indian artists on Spotify rising 29% year-on-year in 2025. The growth was broad-based across languages, with Telugu leading the regional surge with royalties increasing by more than 120%, followed by Marathi at nearly 50%, Bengali at close to 40% and Malayalam at more than 30%.
The latest figures from Spotify’s annual Loud & Clear report underline the growing economic significance of streaming for India’s diverse music ecosystem. Hindi royalties increased by nearly 30% during the year, while Tamil recorded 20% growth. At the same time, the number of artists generating more than ₹1 crore annually increased 21% year-on-year, while the number earning more than ₹5 crore has more than doubled since 2023.
The growth is also being accompanied by a significant increase in global discovery of Indian music. Listeners outside India streamed Indian artists nearly 12.8 billion times in 2025 despite having never listened to them before, representing a 14% increase over the previous year. Overall, Indian artists accumulated nearly 335 billion streams on Spotify during the year, equivalent to more than 20 billion hours of listening.
Dhruvank Vaidya, Head of Music & Podcast, Spotify India, said, “In 2025, 14% more listeners globally discovered an Indian artist on Spotify for the first time – and the listening went deep. Indian artists accumulated nearly 335 billion streams on the platform last year, over 20 billion hours of music, with royalties up 29% and growing in every major Indian language. Telugu alone is up over 120% year on year.”
Independent music strengthens its position
Beyond the headline royalty numbers, Spotify’s data points to a shift in the composition of India’s music consumption, with independent and artist-led releases increasingly competing with film music for audience attention.
Indian artists accounted for 90% of the tracks on Spotify India’s Daily Top 50 in 2025. Independent Indian pop, or I-Pop, also accounted for half of the platform’s year-end top 10 tracks in India, with artists including Aditya Rikhari, Kushagra, Anuv Jain, Faheem Abdullah and Jasleen Royal featuring alongside major film releases.
Aditya Rikhari’s independent track ‘Sahiba’ was among the strongest examples of this trend, spending more than 11 consecutive weeks at number one on Spotify India during 2025. The platform’s data suggests that streaming is increasingly enabling artists to build audiences without relying exclusively on traditional film, label or industry structures.
Aditya Rikhari, artist, said, “Streaming changed the scale of what was possible for me as an independent artist. Songs that started from a very personal place were able to travel to listeners across the country, sometimes long after they were released. Spotify’s discovery tools, in particular, helped my music reach a much wider set of listeners, many of whom went on to genuinely connect with and love the songs.”
The influence of independent musicians is also extending into mainstream film soundtracks. The Dhurandhar album, one of the prominent film albums of 2025, featured independent artists including Jasmine Sandlas and Simran Choudhary, reflecting the increasingly fluid relationship between independent music and the film ecosystem.
Simran Choudhary, artist, said, “Streaming has completely changed what it means to be a Punjabi artist today. You no longer have to wait for a big label or a traditional industry gatekeeper to take your music to the world. I’ve experienced that first-hand with my own independent music and film songs like Lutt Le Gaya.”
Regional music becomes an economic opportunity
The strongest indication of streaming’s impact on India’s music business, however, lies in the performance of regional languages. Spotify’s figures show that growth is not restricted to the country’s largest Hindi and Punjabi music markets, with audiences for languages such as Telugu, Marathi, Bengali, Malayalam and Tamil translating into higher royalty generation.
Haryanvi has emerged as another fast-growing market. Streams for Haryanvi music increased nearly sevenfold on Spotify between February 2023 and February 2026, while almost 100 Haryanvi acts now feature among Spotify India’s top 5,000 artists.
Spotify has responded to this regional momentum by expanding its artist-development initiatives. Its RADAR programme, which supports emerging artists, has been extended to Malayalam after earlier expansions into Punjabi and Tamil.
The growing economic footprint of regional music is also reflected in Spotify’s global rankings. On the platform’s 2025 Global Impact List, 11 of the top 15 songs were artist-first releases spanning multiple Indian languages and genres. The list included music from artists such as AP Dhillon, Karan Aujla, Hanumankind, Anuv Jain and Kushagra.
India’s music exports broaden beyond Hindi
The international opportunity is becoming an increasingly important component of India’s streaming economy. More than 40% of the royalties earned by Indian artists on Spotify in 2025 came from listeners outside the country. Importantly, international consumption is distributed across multiple languages rather than being driven predominantly by Hindi music.
Punjabi music has already established a strong global footprint, while artists working in Tamil, Malayalam and other regional languages are increasingly finding international audiences through streaming-led discovery.
Tamil music, for instance, recorded several major streaming milestones during the year. Anirudh Ravichander’s ‘Coolie’ album crossed 100 million Spotify streams within 10 days, while Sai Abhyankar and Sai Smriti’s ‘Aasa Kooda’ accumulated 238 million streams. Hanumankind, who was born in Kerala, crossed 360 million Spotify streams with ‘Big Dawgs’ and reached number one on a Spotify global chart.
The growing international reach is also visible in Spotify’s support for emerging regional artists. Punjabi musicians Tegi Pannu and Watan Sahi were featured on RADAR Global, providing exposure to audiences outside India.
Women artists are gaining greater visibility within this expanding ecosystem as well. Local streams of Indian female artists increased 27% year-on-year in 2025, while international streams rose 7%. Jasmine Sandlas’ appearances on the Dhurandhar soundtrack helped take her to number three on Spotify’s Global Top 200. She also released her first full-length album in more than five years, ‘Legal Robbery’, through her own label, Jasmine Sandlas Records.
Streaming infrastructure reshapes music discovery
The broader economic story is therefore not simply one of higher streaming volumes, but of a more distributed music economy in which discovery, audience building and monetisation are increasingly accessible to artists operating outside traditional industry centres.
Jayant Chaudhary, Minister of State (Independent Charge), Ministry of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship, said, “India’s music economy reflects the extraordinary creativity, diversity and entrepreneurial spirit of our artists. The 29% growth in Spotify royalties, supported by strong gains across Indian languages, shows how digital platforms are enabling talent from every region to find audiences, build sustainable livelihoods and participate in the global creative economy.”
According to Spotify, Indian artists were also featured in 112 million user-created playlists globally in 2025, including nearly 59 million playlists created within India. This growing role of listeners as curators adds another layer to the discovery ecosystem, allowing audiences to influence which artists and songs gain traction.
The trajectory suggests that India’s streaming economy is moving beyond a predominantly film-led model towards a more diversified artist ecosystem. Regional languages are expanding their commercial footprint, independent musicians are gaining greater control over audience relationships, and international listeners are increasingly discovering Indian music without the traditional geographic and linguistic barriers.
With royalties rising across virtually every major Indian language and more artists crossing higher earnings thresholds, streaming is emerging not merely as a distribution channel but as an increasingly important economic infrastructure for India’s music industry.
