Audio streaming grows 40% in India in 2020

The regional language music which now contributes 39% of all streams, is up from 33% from previous years, across services, and the lockdown also saw growth personalised playlists such as cleaning, home workouts, kids’ content, and cooking.

India witnessed growth in audio streaming platforms of nearly 40% in 2020. With decrease in travel and commute time, amid the coronavirus pandemic and ensuing lockdowns, music has proven to be therapeutic as people multi-tasked and switched between household chores and professional engagements.

As per the study by Kantar and VTION this January, India’s audio streaming market was dominated by Gaana, with a 30% share, followed by JioSaavn (24%), Wynk Music (15%), Spotify (15%), Google Play Music (10%), and others (7%).

The non-film music has shown tremendous increase year-on-year, in the absence of any new movie releases as per Mr. Prashan Agarwal, CEO, Gaana.

He also stated that, in 2019, 40% of Hindi top 100 charts used to be non-film songs which has grown to 65% in 2020.

On Gaana, K-Pop has seen growth of 350% in 2020.

As per Mr. Amarjit Batra, MD - India, Spotify, though India’s most-streamed songs were from Bollywood, international and independent music witnessed significant growth, reflecting India’s appetite for all kinds of music. As per Spotify, in 2020, 60% of the top 10 albums were by international artistes, with love for Korean pop music remaining consistent and K-pop band BTS making it to the top five artistes streamed in India on Spotify in 2020.

The most streamed artists were Arijit Singh, Tanisk Bagchi, A. R. Rahman, Neha Kakkar, and Shreya Ghosal, Prateek Kuhad, Ritviz, Nucleya, Lost Stories, and The F16s.

The established artistes were able to build on their fan base in 2020 by actively involving audiences in virtual sessions, newer singers have emerged, said Mr. Vikram Mehra, managing director at Saregama India Ltd.

Mr. Batra from Spotify said that they collaborated with Diljit Dosanjh for his non-film album,G.O.A.T.,to host a ‘Listening Party with Diljit’ on Twitter in July 2020 and this resulted in millions of streams from India besides from the US, the UK, Canada, and Australia with G.O.A.T emerging as the only non-film, Indian album in this year’s top 10 albums on the platform in India.

Thee JioSaavn spokesperson said that people have developed relaxation and sleep rituals where audio has become an integral part of the process. Specific activity based or 'intent music listening' is becoming user’s habit.

With the change in everyone’s daily routine and this shift was reflected in how people began consuming audio. Pre-pandemic, listening was usually most prominent during commute hours, but now audio is a break from screen time throughout the day.Users are now streaming music and podcasts during daily activities such as workouts, cooking, and even sleeping, said Mr. Batra from Spotify.

Between April 2020 and June 2020, Spotify saw a 37% increase among listeners using the desktop version of the app, while 55% increase in those using the app on their tablets. The TV and gaming consoles listening also grew more than 55% globally over the past few months.

Disclaimer: This information has been collected through secondary research and IBEF is not responsible for any errors in the same.