Sound of music is increasingly regional on apps
NEWDELHI: Indians are now dancing to a different tune on online streaming platforms. Bollywood soundtracks, for long the most dominant genre on these apps, are no longer the first or only choice for users.
The popularity of music in Indian languages other than Hindi has surged in the past two years. Hindi film music, which accounted for about 70% of the overall consumption on streaming services such as Saavn and Gaana two years ago, has now dropped to about 50%, while nonhindi songs have witnessed a spurt in consumption, going up from 5% to nearly 25%, industry executives say.
The surge in popularity of regional music in the last two years has coincided with the sharp drop in data tariffs, rise in smartphone penetration and proliferation of content in languages such as Punjabi, Tamil and Telugu. Mobile data tariffs have plunged since Mukesh Ambani’s Reliance Jio Infocomm Ltd entered the market in 2016, sparking a bitter war for market share in the world’s second-largest market by mobile phone users.
“With internet penetration in the country growing every day, audiences are able to stream music in their own languages and from their own regions. Artists are also able to release their music with the support of online and independent platforms, which are encouraging this,” said Meetal Shah, global head of brand, communications and marketing at Saavn.
Saavn’s in-house streaming label, Artist Originals, is an example of how independent artists are supported to release, distribute and promote their music in the country.
“There are many places in India that got electrified in the last few years and whose first source of entertainment was the mobile phone, not the television,” said Jay Mehta, head, digital, Sony Music India. “People in these places have grown up only knowing regional content, with no exposure to Bollywood.” Unlike the internet, traditional media such as radio and television still lean heavily on Bollywood content, he added.
Quite clearly, the biggest gainer of the regional content wave has been Punjabi which, Mehta says, has pretty much become akin to a national language as far as music goes.
“From a percentage perspective, all regional languages including Punjabi, Tamil, Telugu, Marathi and Gujarati have seen growth of more than 100% on our platform last year,” said Prashan Agarwal, chief executive officer at Gaana, the streaming service owned by Times Internet Ltd. “But from an absolute number standpoint, apart from Hindi, Punjabi and English stand out, accounting for more than 10% each of the overall consumption today.”
Punjabi, Agarwal added, has seen huge traction thanks to artists like Diljit Dosanjh and Jassie Gill, with most chartbusters falling in the peppy, romantic and party track zone.
In fact, Dosanjh’s is the current Internet sensation. The second favourite is the sad romantic number, with singer Millind Gaba’s single
standing out last year. Then there are the Punjabi songs that acquire Bollywood rehashes and turn even bigger like Dosanjh and singer composer Badshah’s
that was recently
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“As people start consuming Punjabi music through Bollywood, they are also open to consuming other Punjabi music on the platform which is where a lot of our recommendation algorithms based on tonality and user behaviour come into play,” Agarwal said.