Spotify led India’s music and audio streaming market in FY23 with a 26 per cent share (ahead of Reliance's JioSaavn, Airtel's Wynk, Apple Music, YouTube Music, Amazon Prime Music, Gaana, and others), according to a new study by Redseer. The Swedish audio-streaming major is said to have played a crucial role in bringing in first-time listeners in the age group of 15 to 30 to the Indian OTT audio market.
Spotify’s focus on Hindi and regional language music over international music also helped it score over several homegrown music apps. Redseer estimates that “the platform boasts one of the largest music libraries of Hindi and vernacular content… and is able to get more users across different age groups and user cohorts, pan India”.
Add to that, Spotify also emerged as the most “diverse” product in the audio-streaming market, with the availability of daily, weekly, and monthly subscription plans. Its branding through celebs like Anil Kapoor and Deepika Padukone is also said to have played a role in attracting young metro users.
Beyond Spotify too, India’s OTTA market is growing rapidly. One million music streams were played every three minutes, totaling 460 million streams per day in FY23. This is a growth of 1.6x from 290 million streams in FY20, especially driven by the pandemic that led to a surge in overall OTT consumption across the country. Over 60 per cent of music streams happen in India’s top 8 metros, but the contribution of Tier 2+ cities is steadily growing too.
Ujjwal Chaudhry, Partner at Redseer Strategy Consultants, shared: “The COVID-19 pandemic witnessed during FY21 and FY22 accelerated the growth of OTTA, adding more than 50 million music listeners, not only from the young age group but also among the people with more than 40 years of age.”
Regional music accounted for 34 per cent of daily music streams and is said to be growing at a faster clip than Hindi and English music. Streaming platforms too are striking more partnerships with regional music labels and recommending more vernacular playlists to listeners. “Within vernacular (regional), the South Indian market has witnessed a surge in both user base and engagement in the last two years attributed to the growing number of blockbuster movie releases (like RRR, Pushpa, Kantara),” Redseer revealed.
While South Indian languages have grown, Punjabi remains the lead contributor in regional music with a 39 per cent share. Punjabi music, in fact, also leads the non-film genre in OTTA apps. “In the last four years, songs of artists like AP Dhillon and Diljit Dosanjh have been played not just in the north, but across all states,” per the report.
In terms of subscription revenues, 5 per cent of monthly active users on OTTA apps were paid users in FY23, with average revenue per user (ARPU) ranging from Rs 60 to Rs 70. While India continues to be a primarily ad revenue-supported market, subscription revenues are on the uptick now, with more than 80 per cent of subscriptions coming from metro cities. “In the last 2-3 years, diversity in the subscription packs has increased (with the availability of student plans, one-day and one-week packs, etc.) which has led to more subscriptions, mostly coming from the top 10 - 12 cities,” the report stated.