The Market for Music in India

-MUSTAFIZUR RAHMAN

INTRODUCTION
India is world second most populated country in the world with more than 1.3 billion people. And
Music is one of the most popular culture in here. It’s quite impossible to find people who don’t like
music. Now this is a thinking part that 1.3 billion people’s county and its market for music. According
to FICCI report, The Indian Entertainment and Media industry has experienced tremendous growth
in recent years and Music Industry is one of them.

MARKET FOR MUSIC IN INDIA

Music has no barrier of language, nation, religion or culture. It represents everything. If we say about
India, inside India there are 29 states. Their capitals are different, languages are different, culture is
different and even lots of religion is also live in India. So, this is a place of diverse. So, if we say
about music in India we can’t ignore all this fact. If it’s just a fact of Bollywood then it’s totally
different. Here I will describe the music’s market in all over India. According to NIELSEN MUSIC’s
survey titled “India Music-360: 2018”, 94 percent people listen to music (either primary listening, in
the background, or at live music events throughout the year). Besides, 20 hours average time spent
per week listening to music either as a primary activity or in the background while doing other
activities.

HOW DOES MARKET WORK FOR MUSIC?

Whether true or not, mastering your toolkit will allow you to better express your creativity, separating
you from the masses that lack the dedication. Once you have the product – the great music and brand
– you’re not there yet. It needs to be marketed. In today’s music industry, a poor release well marketed
will fare better than a great release poorly marketed. So, marketing is very important for music
industry. But here music market is little different and that’s described below.

1. TV: According to TAM (Television Audience Measurement) universe update in July 2015-
India has more than 234 million households where 167 million households have television
sets. Among the 167 million households 161 million have access to Cable TV or satellite TV,
including 84 million households which are DTH subscribers. There are more than thousand
channels are there and more than hundred channels are purely music channels. It’s the
information of 2015, now it’s 2018 and households, TV sets, satellite TV is also increased
and counting. Besides, TV channels, music channels are also increased. Now we can easily
think that Television market how big for music industry in India. TRP rate of music channels
is also good. Because music is used for pure entertainment and relaxation. Favourite music
channels in TV are- 9xm, Mastiii, MTunes, B4U music, Zee Music, Sangeet Bangla etc.

2. Radio: According to All India Radio statement- All India radio is having around 4oo FM
radio stations all over India. Among these are even in remote places like Padum (Kargil),
Andaman (Port Blair) and remote locations in North East states. And according to FICCI
report-2018, Radio industry is growing impressively. In 2017 Gross of Taxes of Radio was
25.8 billion INR while in 2018 it’s expected to 28.4 billion INR. So now we can easily
understand that Radio is also a big market. If we say about the context of Music in Radio-

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 music is most important programme for most of the Radio stations. Among the radio users,
most of the people use for music only. Among the radio stations, Radio Mirchi, Red FM, Big
FM, AIR FM Gold etc are very famous.

3. Mobile: According to FICCI report-2018, India will be number 2 for smartphone market
within 2020, and according to CNN report in Sept 2017 that India has about 650 million
mobile phone users, where more than 300 million people have smartphones. Mobile has big
connection with music. Now-a-days music in mobile phone is increasing tremendously.
Besides, hello-tunes, welcome-tunes are also the market for music in Mobile phones.

4. Online: The present time is called as age of internet. The internet plays a major part in
spreading music through all over the country and even geographically divided countries also.
The industry is optimistic for the future despite the fact that online music downloads have
been slow to catch on. This has been highlighted by initiatives from music companies such as
T-Series, Yashraj and Saregama as they have gone into partnership with aggregators to offer
their content online and operate online stores. According to NIELSEN MUSIC’s research
titled “India Music 360- 2018”, 71 percent of Online Consumers consider Music and
important or very important part of their lives. Social Media now a big platform and market
for music industry. Because among the online traffic in India, YouTube and Facebook in 3 rd
and 4th position respectively. Now-a-days, the business or popularity of a song or music
depends on social media hit. Even, music’s income also depends on social media hit. That’s
why, Online sector is a big market for music in India. Favourite steaming sites are, YouTube,
Google Play Music, Jio Beats, Gaana etc. According to FICCI report-2018 India is one of the
countries where digital music sales have overtaken physical sales. Sales of digital music or
through digital channels account for around 65% of overall music sales in India.

5. Film: India has a film entertainment market larger than the US. It produced more than 1000
movies per year and sold more than 5 billion tickets. Soundtracks are a major part of movie
marketing in India. There are opportunities to tie-up with film companies to provide music
content for a movie. There is also significant increase in acquisition of music rights with music
companies bundling their music with Bollywood movies. For example, UTV has deal with
music label T-Series to acquire the rights to music for 16 movies. Movies continue to
dominate the music industry in India.

6. Live Music: Besides, live music program now a days becomes a big market for music. The
touring market is relatively under developed, having historically been hampered by
inadequate infrastructure and facilities. Large concerts are typically held in stadiums and the
top markets are Mumbai and Bangalore. Many shows are held outdoors, but the arenas do not
have facilities like the developed markets. Practical issues such as catering and mobile latrine
facilities continually need to be addressed.

REGIONAL MUSIC AND NON-FILM MUSIC IS GROWING

As local artists from across the country are securing a sizeable fan base, the consumption of music in
regional languages is increasing steadily. Distributors such as Sony’s The Orchard and Believe
Digital have helped usher the regional repertoire into the digital age, regularly signing deals with
content owners such as Muzik 247 and Aditya Music India. Regional record labels such as Aditya
Music India have also signed deals with various digital music majors to share their catalogue across
digital platforms internationally.

Like Regional music, non-filmy music industry is also growing so rapidly. According to FICCI
report-2018, The non-film music market comprises around 30% of the overall music industry’s
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revenues. A number of streaming services are launching their original content by collaborating with
local artists. Saavn has launched originals consisting of audio stories, podcasts and commentaries.
Hungama has an original audio series labelled Mera Wala Music and Gaana has launched Specials.
Online ticketing company BookMyShow also has an offering Jukebox.

KEY PROFIT/VALUE DRIVERS OF MUSIC MARKETING

• Rapid growing of Online Audience
• TV is game changer for music industry
• Increasing FM Radio licencing revenue
• Monetizing digital content
• Increasing popularity of live music show

KEY CHALLENGES
• Piracy is always there (either for filmy song or non-filmy song)
• Plagiarism in song (many songs are copied from different places without giving credit)
• High content-acquisition costs (Music companies continue to pay dearly to acquire film
music, which can be as high as 25% to 30% of the film’s total cost)
• Paid-service model still in the nascent stage (one of the biggest problems is the general music
consumer’s apparent unwillingness to pay for music)
• Growing competition from music video websites
• Screwed production in the name of music.
• Low royalties

Source of Information
1. FICCI report-2018
2. “India- The Music Market Report”
3. “India Music-360: 2018”
4. TAM Annual Universe Update-2015
5. “In India, the Golden Age of Television is Now” by Vikas Bajaj

MUSTAFIZUR RAHMAN
MACJ- 1st Semester
Roll-15