Local music and Bollywood are Spotify favourites in India according to a recent blog posting celebrating the first 12 months since their launch. There are now more than 6,400 Indian creators using Spotify for Artists and there are listeners from over 2,300 cities tuning into more than 350 curated Indian playlists like New Music Hindi and Punjabi 101.
The top three music genres streamed across India are pop, filmi (music from popular Indian movies) and hip-hop. K-Pop also has a growing fan base and India is in the top 22% of K-Pop listening in all of Spotify’s markets globally.
Local artists are popular
Spotify listeners in India have streamed over 130 artists each in the past year with the top five most-streamed in the country coming from India. Topping the list are three Bollywood singers: Arijit Singh, Tanishk Bagchi, and Neha Kakkar. The age group of 35 to 44-year-olds stream Indian artists at a higher rate than any other.
The most-streamed international artist in India is Post Malone, who was also Spotify’s most-streamed global artist in 2019; BTS and Taylor Swift are popular with Indian listeners as well. The most-streamed track in India over the past year is the global smash “Señorita” by Shawn Mendes and Camila Cabello, followed by Arijit Singh and Mithoon’s “Tujhe Kitna Chahne Lage” and Sachet Tandon and Parampara Thakur’s “Bekhayali” (both from the soundtrack to the popular Indian film “Kabir Singh”).
Love songs are a popular genre
Love songs are a major part of Indian culture, which is why Spotify’s Bollywood Mush playlist is one of the top-streamed playlists among users. Listeners in the eastern part of the country – West Bengal, Odisha, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Assam, Bihar, and Sikkim – have streamed the playlist the most. During Diwali, India’s biggest religious celebration, the holiday’s themed playlists which lean heavily on songs about love and partying got major traction on the festival’s peak day on 27th October 2019, with plays increasing by almost 4,400%.
Local culture features in podcasts
India has fired up its podcast lineup, launching its first three Spotify original podcasts in December 2019. 22 Yarns With Gaurav Kapur, Bhaskar Bose, and Love Aaj Kal with Aastha & Ankit were each produced in India to cater to an Indian audience. These podcasts, which are all about pop culture, including cricket, fiction thriller storytelling, and relationship advice, respectively, also made it to the top five on the original podcast charts.
An infographic on the top artists, playlist and podcasts in India can be downloaded here.
