The Indian Music Charts Podcast

The charts look considerably different from how they did a year ago and on this week's episode, we're discussing what's led to these changes in the form of four hot takes. We talk about what's behind pop's recent resurgence, how the catalogue music being streamed is much younger than you would expect, and why a Haryanvi singer has managed to score ten concurrent hits! As always, we look at the key movements on the Spotify Weekly Top Songs India chart, this time for the survey published on April 24, 2025.

In a rare occurrence, three of the top five tracks on Spotify's Weekly Top Songs chart for India are by Pakistani acts: "Jhol” by Annural Khalid and Maanu; “Maand” by Bayaan, Hasan Raheem and Rovalio; and “Pal Pal” by Afusic and AliSoomroMusic. Notably, they've been put out by the three major international labels - Warner, Sony and Universal respectively - with teams in India and MENA. It's a good time therefore to revisit the episode we published in 2023, which made a case for cross-border collaboration. Happy listening!

According per two recently-published annual gauges of the health of the industry, the IFPI's Global Music Report and the EY Media & Entertainment report, in 2024, India's music business didn't grow as much as it did in 2023. In this episode, we discuss the factors behind the slowdown and why there's reason to be optimistic about the future. As always, we look at the key movements on the Spotify Weekly Top Songs India chart, this time for the survey published on April 4, 2025. ——-Vote for The Indian Music Charts Podcast in the Art & Entertainment category for the HT Smartcast Awards: https://survey.zohopublic.in/zs/H3CRUA

Earlier this month, Spotify shared some India-specific data as part of the 2024 edition of Loud & Clear, its annual report that details how and how much artists earn money through streams on the platform. Among the highlights were stats relating to the export of Indian music abroad. On this week's episode, we discuss and contextualise some of the lists they've shared and talk about the potential for local artists to expand their international audience. As always, we look at the key movements on the Spotify Weekly Top Songs India chart, this time for the survey published on March 20, 2025.----Listen to how Big Dawgs became the biggest export of 2024: https://open.spotify.com/episode/5Bk3RgsIobpAJnvLXmi1LY?si=vhRfCqmARZWA2RQANeQbXQ

If you were at Lollapalooza in Mumbai last weekend, and were among the thousands of fans who sang along to Shawn Mendes or Green Day, then you saw for yourself how India has become a major market for concerts and tours by international artists. Why then, despite their huge popularity here, do so few hits by international acts reach our local charts? In this conversation from October 2023, we discuss exactly this. Happy listening!

From Chapell Roan's Grammy acceptance speech to country star Jelly Roll's viral video, artists seem to be calling out label deals more frequently now than in recent memory. But are they really that bad? Why do rising talents continue to aspire to sign them? Why did they get such a bad rep in the first place? And how are they evolving with the times? These are among the things we discuss on this episode in which we also talk about the different types of offers out there and the career stage at which we believe an independent act should consider taking them. As always, we look at the key movements on the Spotify Weekly Top Songs India chart, this time for the survey published on February 21, 2025.

In the streaming era, catalogue music - classified as songs that were released over 18 months ago - is doing better than ever before. It's rare, however, for older tracks to crowd the top of the charts as they are right now. On this week's episode, we discuss the reasons - both organic and strategic - as to why this is happening. As always, we look at the key movements on the Spotify Weekly Top Songs India chart, this time for the survey published on February 7, 2025.

Will this be the year that sees more balanced gender representation among the biggest hits? Which Indian regional languages will grow? And can international artists regain some of the ground they've lost? We make educated guesses to provide answers for each of these questions on this episode in which we share how we think the charts will play out in 2025. As always, we look at key movements on the Spotify Weekly Top Songs India chart, this time for the survey published on January 24, 2025.

With the Coldplay tour being all everyone is talking about this week, we revisit our conversation about India's live music boom, the scramble for tickets, some of the highest attended international concerts and our predictions for which gig might top it next (did we get it right? You tell us in the poll after you hear the episode!). We will be back with a new episode soon and until then enjoy ‘Coldplay,Diljit and the frenzy for gigs. PS: Our tally/discussion does not include electronic music gigs. We've used publicly available attendee numbers of live music events

It's rare for a song from a web series to generate a hit of the same magnitude as a Bollywood or major label release. With “Ishq Hai”, the focus track from the third season of the Netflix show Mismatched nearing the top spot, we got Shilpa Sharda, director, Artist Services & Development at Believe, which marketed the music of the series, to tell us about how their unique campaign for the tune helped turn it into a smash. As always, we look at the key movements on the Spotify Weekly Top Songs India chart, this time for the survey published on January 3, 2025. ----- Shout out to Soham Sengupta who helped us edit this episode! To our fans who helped us with feedback, thank you!

On this special episode, we crunch data related to the most-streamed songs of the year, and discuss the genres, artists and languages that defined 2024 on the charts. Among the things we talk about are whether the I-Pop hype is real, how catalogue tracks are contributing to plays for film music, and the main differences between the year-end India top 50s on Spotify and Apple Music. Links mentioned in the episode: ttps://www.hollywoodreporterindia.com/features/columns/bollywood-music-in-2024-the-hits-that-ruled-playlists https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/i-pop-why-indias-music-industry-hoping-becomes-next-big-bpdwc/ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sgZl8OcSRhM

In any given week, hits by K-Pop acts are among the handful of international tracks on the chart. With “APT.” by Rosie and Bruno Mars rising to the top 20, and consequently becoming the highest-ranked non-Indian single on the survey so far this year, we got K-Pop journalist and founder of media agency Bridge Asia, Riddhi Chakraborty, to plot the rise of the genre in our country and discuss why chart rankings are so important to its artists' fandoms. As always, we look at key movements on the Spotify Weekly Top Songs India chart, this time for the survey published on November 29, 2024.

Three new entries as well as the biggest climber on this week's chart are remakes. Why are they so popular when they rarely improve on the original versions? On this week's episode, we discuss why labels love recreating older hits, whether they're mostly a Hindi film and pop music phenomenon, and how interpolations are a better option than remixes. As always, we look at key movements on the Spotify Weekly Top Songs India chart, this time for the survey published on November 15, 2024.

The nominations for the 2025 Grammy Awards were announced last week, evoking celebration for some Indian artists and disappointment for others, including those on the charts. This year, it seemed like there were a record number of submissions by Indian acts, several of whom shared 'For Your Consideration' posts on social media and a few of whom even put out ads in US music trade publications. On this week's episode, we discuss why the Grammys, which are given out by an American institution, hold so much weight with musicians in India. As always, we look at key movements on the Spotify Weekly Top Songs India chart, this time for the survey published on November 8, 2024.

In May 2023, "Haath Varti" by KSHMR and MC Stan, the first single from the former's concept album Karam entered Spotify's Weekly Top Songs Chart for India. That week, it was the only EDM track on the survey. This led us to a discussion on why EDM tends to draw more live audiences than it does on streaming. Now that we're into the last two months of the year, when there is a cluster of electronic music festivals, we felt it was a great time to revisit this conversation.

Historically, the last quarter of the year tends to be the busiest for new album releases. Earlier, they were timed to capitalise on the festive season. These days, they're more likely to be the result of the culmination of a year full of singles being bundled into an album, or an artist tying a fresh full-length to an upcoming concert tour or festival appearances. Keeping this in mind, we thought it would be a great time to revisit our episode on single vs. album marketing strategies. This episode was originally recorded in March 2024. Enjoy the revisit! We will be back with a new episode soon!

Prateek Kuhad's "Co2" entering the chart marks the rare instance of an English-language track by an Indian artist generating enough streams to reach the top 200. On this week's episode, we discuss why such occurrences are so few and far between, how he managed to do it, and why tunes such as this hit represent a niche within a niche. As always, we look at key movements on the Spotify Weekly Top Songs India chart, this time for the survey published on October 4, 2024.

With Diljit Dosanjh's 2020 track "Born To Shine" reaching a new peak in the aftermath of his tour announcement, we turn our focus to the country's thriving live music scene to discuss the unprecedented scramble for tickets for shows by acts such as Coldplay and him. We also list out the international concerts with the highest attendance figures so far, and predict who we think might be visiting next. As always, we look at key movements on the Spotify Weekly Top Songs India chart, this time for the survey published on September 20, 2024.

The soundtrack to this year's highest-grossing Hindi film so far, horror comedy Stree 2 has accomplished what no other OST has in recent times: each of its four tracks has reached the top ten. In this episode, we speak to Neha Malhotra, assistant general manager - music marketing and audio monetisation at Saregama, about the strategies the label implemented to promote the movie's tunes and consequently, reach this rare milestone. As always, we look at key movements on the Spotify Weekly Top Songs India chart, this time for the survey published on September 6, 2024.

With "Big Dawgs" by rapper Hanumankind and producer Kalmi entering the charts in over a dozen countries, it's become one of the first Indian releases to cross over internationally. This week, we interview Rohan Venkatesh, the founder of management company Imaginary Frnds whose roster includes both HMK and Kalmi, to talk about the release strategy for the hip-hop smash and how multiple touch points across social media served as trigger points for the track to take off first in the US and then across the world. As always, we look at key movements on the Spotify Weekly Top Songs India chart, this time for the survey published on August 23, 2024

On this special episode that was recorded live at the All About Music conference in Mumbai on August 7, 2024, we interview a panel comprising singer and rapper Chaar Diwaari; the head of music and podcasts at Spotify India, Dhruvank Vaidya; artist manager and Swiftie Natasha Mahtani; and chief of business - live events at BookMyShow, Owen Roncon, to understand how fandom is built and monetised, from their distinct perspectives as artists, fans, managers, platforms and promoters. This time, instead of looking at the key movements on the Spotify Weekly Top Songs India survey, we begin the show with a few examples of how superfandom influences the charts. Data mentioned at the start of the podcast can be viewed here: https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1-HgnKilaAg6meObBxEmFA8icjJ7AuKEfwvhYxbkVP68/edit?usp=sharing Special shout out to Team All About Music: Ashish Jose, Chandni Soni, Kinselle Fernandes, Krishna, Anamika Sinha.

With "Aasa Kooda" spending another week in the top three, Tamil pop singer Sai Abhyankar has done what few other acts have in the recent past: follow-up a viral smash with another bonafide hit. This week, we discuss what he did differently to achieve this, how virality doesn't always convert into chart placements, the mistakes artists often make when trying to replicate their previous success and what they should be doing instead. As always, we look at key movements on the Spotify Weekly Top Songs India chart, this time for the survey published on July 26, 2024.

With Karan Aujla landing both pop and Bollywood hits on the charts this week, we look at how the recent growth of Indian commercial pop music or I-Pop differs from the 1990s Indi-pop era that preceded it. Among the things we discuss is the way in which the crossover between the pop and Hindi film industries has changed and why the relationship between them is more symbiotic than before. As always, we look at key movements on the Spotify Weekly Top Songs India chart, this time for the survey published on July 12, 2024.

We're six months into the year, which means it's time for a look at the trends of 2024 so far. Taking a close look at the songs that reached top ten of Spotify Weekly Top Songs India chart from the start of January to the end of June, we examine the genres and languages that have dominated the survey. This time around, we look at the top five most streamed songs of the year until date. ----- The Indian Music Charts Podcast will be live at All About Music 2024! Get your tickets here: https://allaboutmusic.in/

As Sabrina Carpenter's "Espresso" rises into the top 40 this week, marking the highest position for an international English-language track so far this year, we get special guest, Anand Srinivasan, the vice president and business head of international repertoire at Universal Music India, to share how the song has broken through in India. Among other insights, Anand explains why the charts don't always give the real picture of the popularity of international music here. As always, we look at key movements on the Spotify Weekly Top Songs India chart, this time for the survey published on June 14, 2024.

Until recently, a film song would break through on the charts either ahead of or around its parent movie's release in cinemas. These days, like this week's chart topper, tracks are entering and reaching new peaks soon after the films premiere on video streaming services. In this episode, we discuss why this is happening, and whether it's something we're increasingly going to see in the future. As always, we look at key movements on the Spotify Weekly Top Songs India chart, this time for the survey published on May 31, 2024.

Since Spotify launched in India at the end of February 2019, the listenership of music in Malayalam has grown a whopping 5,300% globally. With tracks from the blockbuster 'Aavesham' dotting the charts, we examine the hows and whys behind Malayalam music's phenomenal rise. As always, we look at key movements on the Spotify Weekly Top Songs India chart, this time for the survey published on May 17, 2024.

In a country with over half a dozen international and local music streaming services, marketing a track requires a multi-pronged approach On this week's episode, we speak to the founder of Artiste First, the label behind surprise hit "Ishq" by Faheem Abdullah and Rauhan Malik, to find out how they tailor their strategy for each DSP in order to maximise traction. As always, we look at the key movements on the Spotify Weekly Top Songs India chart, this time for the survey published on May 3, 2024.

In a testament to her current status as the biggest pop star in the world, Taylor Swift's new single "Fortnight" has debuted higher than any other international track has in India so far this year. On this week's episode, we talk about the superfandom she enjoys on our shores, how she has managed to garner such a large following, and which other foreign acts come close to matching it. As always, we look at key movements on the Spotify Weekly Top Songs India chart, this time for the survey published on April 26, 2024.

Bollywood music is back and sitting comfortably in its old spot at the top of the charts. But this year's Hindi film hits exhibit that little has changed in terms of its sound. The segment remains dominated by remixes of recent pop hits, recreations of older smashes, "inspired" tunes and deja vu-evoking power ballads. In this episode, we examine why the film industry is so averse to taking risks, and how true evolution is always the result of constant innovation. As always, we look at the key movements on the Spotify Weekly Top Songs India chart, this time for the survey dated March 28, 2024.

With Sanju Rathod's "Gulabi Sadi" scoring this week's highest new entry, we interview Vishnu Iyer, A&R Manager, Artist Services & Development at Believe India, which has been working the track, about why the Marathi pop smash has managed to cross over into the national chart. We discuss the characteristics of the regional language's music industry, and how Rathod capitalised on the success of his breakthrough smash "Nauvari" to push his new release. As always, we look at key movements on the Spotify Weekly Top Songs India chart, this time for the survey dated March 21, 2024.

Even in this singles era, albums remain important for both artists and labels. To grab the attention full-length releases need, musicians and their teams have been devising innovative marketing strategies. In this episode, we discuss some recent campaigns, the best practices for upcoming acts and the pros and cons of investing in an album. As always, we look at key movements on the Spotify Weekly Top Songs India chart, this time for the survey dated March 14, 2024.

With the Indian music industry moving to adopt the term 'I-Pop' in place of 'non-film' to denote a certain kind of Indian popular music, we look at how such new genre names come to be and what it will take for the term to stick. As always, we look at key movements on the Spotify Weekly Top Songs India chart, this time for the survey dated March 7, 2024.

The Tamil music industry is even more dominated by film soundtracks than its Hindi counterpart. That's slowly but surely changing with the surprise success of hits like "Katchi Sera" by Sai Abhyankkar, which has zoomed into the top ten in just its second week on the chart. On this episode, our guest Magesh R., the creative head at Think Music and the A&R lead at Think Music Indie, which released the track, talks to us about the digital marketing strategy for "Katchi Sera" and explains how it's achieved what few non-film Tamil tunes have done before. As always, we look at key movements on the Spotify Weekly Top Songs India chart, this time for the survey published on February 16, 2024.

The past year has been a great one for women on the US and UK charts and at award shows such as the Grammy where they took home all of the big four trophies. On India's charts, however, hits by solo female acts are conspicuous by their absence. In this episode, we look at how our surveys compare to those in the west, why there's such a huge gender imbalance, and what it will take to have more women in the national top ten. As always, we look at key movements on the Spotify Weekly Top Songs India chart, this time for the survey published on February 9, 2024.

This week's highest new entry - a hit 2022 track by the independent pop music duo Mitraz that they've reworked for an upcoming Bollywood film - inspired us to sink our teeth into the sync business. We get our guest, Alick Sethi, the founder of music supervision agency Retox Music, to take us through the different types of sync opportunities available to artists today, what they should look out for, who should they approach to land such deals and how to ensure you price your music right. As always, we look at key movements on the Spotify Weekly Top Songs India chart, this time for the survey published on February 2, 2024. ------ Learn more about Retox Music :https://www.retox-music.com

Anuv Jain's "Husn" is officially at #1 on Spotify's daily Top Songs India chart, making it his first release to reach the pole position and a landmark moment for independent music (though the single is distributed through Universal Music). We couldn't think of a better time to revisit the conversation with Aayushmaan Sinha, the founder of Represent, which manages Anuv, to break down the singer/songwriter's streaming success. Through a combination of community building and a sharp focus on measuring metrics that matter in the long run, this analysis of Anuv's success is a masterclass in how artists can build a fandom. 

In this week's episode, we step away from our usual programming to discuss a topic that isn't directly related to but is intrinsically connected to the charts - the state of the music industry, both worldwide and within India. We highlight data from two recently released publications, Luminate's Year-End Music Report for 2023, which has some eye-popping figures, and EY India's The Music Creator Economy, which includes the results of a survey of 500 musicians. They tell us that listeners are streaming more music than ever before, and also that the average artist might be making less money from their releases than ever before. As always, we look at key movements on the Spotify Weekly Top Songs India chart, this time for the survey published on January 12, 2024. PS: Keep you pen and paper/note taking app handy. There will be a LOT of data.

On our first episode of the new year, we gaze into our metaphorical crystal balls to make five predictions for the upcoming months, including which independent artist we think could have a King-sized career; whether the resurgence of Bollywood music will be even stronger; and what Indian regional languages will garner more listenership. As always, we look at key movements on the Spotify Weekly Top Songs India chart, this time for the survey published on January 5, 2024. Our favorite music festival Control ALT Delete is back and taking place this weekend! You can 'pay what you want' and attend the festival (but we hope that you pay generously, all profits are split equally amongst the performing artists). Contribute here: https://www.skillboxes.com/events/control-alt-delete

We take our annual deep dive into the most-streamed tracks of the year and discuss the genres, artists, languages and labels that dominated the charts.

On this week's episode, our guest Aayushman Sinha, the founder of music-centric entertainment and management company Represent, helps us break down the massive streaming success of the most popular artist on his roster, singer-songwriter Anuv Jain whose new track "Husn" has debuted on the charts within just a week of release. As always, we look at key movements on the Spotify Weekly Top Songs India chart, this time for the survey published on December 8, 2023.

This was the year Bollywood music finally bounced back in a way with several box-office smashes, many of which spawned top ten tunes. On this week's episode, we discuss how and why even though the number of chart successes from Hindi films increased, the soundtracks as a whole generated fewer hits. As always, we look at key movements on the Spotify Weekly Top Songs India chart, this time for the survey published on December 1, 2023.

On this week's episode, we talk about how Diljit Dosanjh and Sia's track “Hass Hass”, which has broken into the top five, stands out among similar collaborations between Indian and international  acts. As always, we look at key movements on the Spotify Weekly Top Songs India chart, this time for the survey published on November 24, 2023. --------------------------- Link to the Hivewire episode mentioned in the episode here : https://bit.ly/47BF5Kf --------------------------- Check out Women of Music India, a women-ed community emerging from the Indian music industry. Become a member today : https://www.womenofmusicindia.com/

In March, we reported how the previous week's chart topper "Apna Bana Le" from the movie 'Bhediya' went AWOL from the chart after Zee Music Company's catalogue was pulled off Spotify. Three weeks ago, the track re-entered the survey, indicating that the service and the label have renewed their licensing agreement. This week, "Apna Bana Le" is at #58, all the way up from #98 making it one of the biggest climbers. Its disappearance in March kicked off a discussion on whether #1 on charts truly means #1 in the country. In India's case, the answer is: not necessarily. We dive into why on this week's short.

In the week that went by, the 2024 Grammy nominations were announced so we thought it would be timely to revisit a conversation from February 2023 in which we discuss the Grammys, why Indian artists aspire to win them and if such awards continue to hold the relevance they once did. PS: If you are listening on Spotify, we have a poll about just this. If we get some interesting answers, we will share them during next week's episode. We will be back from Diwali break next week, until then, happy listening!

On this week's episode, we analyse the recent chart dominance of Tamil film composer and singer Anirudh Ravichander, with special guest, music journalist Lalitha Suhasini. We talk about how Anirudh's songs for Leo mark an artistic evolution and discuss why he's been able to become one of the most successful music directors of his generation. As always, we look at key movements on the Spotify Weekly Top Songs India chart, this time for the survey published on November 3, 2023.

On this week's episode, we break down the success of "Khalasi", the breakout hit from Coke Studio Bharat, the new avatar of Coke Studio India. We discuss the reasons why the track has performed better than others from the season, and what the tune's recent virality could mean for the future of the series. As always, we look at key movements on the Spotify Weekly Top Songs India chart, this time for the survey published on October 27, 2023.

During the past week, when the Bombay High Court rejected a plea for the ban on artists from Pakistan performing in India, a track by a new trio from the neighbouring country rose up the charts. The events inspired this week's episode in which we make the case for cross-border collaborations and elaborate how both nations can benefit greatly from them. As always, we look at key movements on the Spotify Weekly Top Songs India chart, this time for the survey published on October 20, 2023.

We are on a mid-season break and will be back on 24th October 2023! Until then, we're revisiting a segment of our first live podcast recording, which took place at the All About Music conference last month. Here, Bhavya Anand, co-founder of Bluprint, the artist development agency that represents rapper-singer King; singer Asses Kaur; and Padmanabhan 'Paddy' NS, the head of  artist and label partnerships at Spotify India, discuss with us the difference between a trend and a hit.

Contrary to what musicians are often told, there is a formula to follow that can increase the song's chances of becoming a hit and on this week's episode, we have a special guest whose current smash is proof of this. We speak to rising composer Denny about the success of his top 20 single "Chale Jaana Phir (Humko Tere Bina)" and how his meticulous approach to composing, audience research and marketing have resulted in the biggest streams of his career. He also shares some invaluable advice for upcoming artists, while we, as always, look at key movements on the Spotify Weekly Top Songs India chart, this time for the week ending October 5, 2023.

On this week's episode, we talk about why the number of hits in non-Indian languages has halved over the last year. We discuss how international tracks are breaking through in India today, what music exporters need to do to cross over here, and why the charts may not always adequately reflect a foreign act's domestic popularity, while looking at key movements on the Spotify Weekly Top Songs India chart published on September 29, 2023. -------- Here is the link to the Hivewire article mentioned in this week's episode. Hivewire is an independent music industry publication launched in June 2023 by Srishti Das. This dynamic newsletter offers a unique perspective on the music industry, focusing on emerging markets: https://www.hivewire.club/hivewire-07-winning-in-emerging-markets-requires-a-shift-from-surface-level-localisation-to-meaningful-localisation/