Indian songs are globally the most popular - they held seven spots on the Top Ten YouTube Global Charts (2022).

But as opposed to global music markets which are artist driven, the Indian music market is highly inclined towards film music. 70% of music consumption is film driven. 80% of recorded music revenue is film-based.

It's reflected in the way people search for music on streaming apps like Spotify.

Only in India are playlists based on actors.

It all began in 1935, when the Bollywood film Dhoop Chhaon was released and PLAY BACK SINGING was born.

Playback singers record songs for soundtracks, while the actors lip-sync them for cameras; the actual singer does not appear on the screen. Actors become the face of music.

Leading to film industry being much larger in size at INR 172 billion versus music at measly INR 22 billion (2022).

Rallied India’s first artist led movement to showcase the hard work of musicians, first time in 90 years.

By partnering with India’s biggest musicians – Grammy winner AR Rahman, Grammy winner Shankar and Ehsan, Loy; and Pritam India’s biggest composer.

Showcasing the never told stories of how much effort it takes to create music. The hours. The nights. Writing. Jamming. Composing. Experimenting. Recording. Takes. Retakes. Getting it wrong. Once, twice, so many times, before getting it right.

Inspired by our initiative 26 other musicians volunteered to join in. And we made them the face of the movement. For the first time, billboards had musicians as the stars, not actors in place of them.

Then, the unthinkable happened. International musicians, the biggest names globally joined our movement. Coldplay, Ed Sheeran, Selena Gomez, BTS, Doja Cat, Post Malone and Alan Walker volunteered to join in for the sake of music.

Our breakthrough moment was as ironical as it was simple.

Indians value hard work a lot. Among a long list of 57 values, hard work is right at the top, at #4. Hard work has been consistently featuring in top 5 values of India since decades.

The Irony - Despite having rich tradition of music in the country, and 80 years of celebrated film music – no one until now had brought to forefront, the hard work that goes into music making.

In a country of play back singing, the stories of musicians’ hard work had taken a back seat. Lost behind the scenes.

This startling fact was our eureka moment.

For a country that loves hard work, we needed to bring the hard work of musicians, from the backdrop to the forefront.

Created a movement that change music listening behaviour:

- Artist followers went up: 51% increase in follower base for out Top 50 artists on Spotify (2024/2023)

- Artist streaming went up: 160% growth in streaming on Spotify (2024/2022)

- Spotify became #1 most streamed music app – 60% share in the category 3X of others.

Transformed music industry

- Increase in independent music streaming: 135% growth in indie music consumption (2024/2022)

- 27 out of the Top 50 songs were independent songs in Spotify's Annual Report

- Top Song was by an India artist - King's Maan Meri Jaan, almost 1.4X the No 2 song

Transformed business:

- Whopping 71% increase Spotify Premium subscription, fastest ever growth since Spotify’s launch in India 5 years ago.

- Earned media worth 36Mn

Transformed brand

- Brand Affinity was at an all-time high at 76% versus competitors, Gaana 48%, Jio Saavn 41%