Indian Music Market Shows Strong Digital Growth

According to Statista Market Insights, the Indian music market is experiencing a time of strong digital growth. As of this year, digital music revenues in India alone were estimated at $1.4 billion. This includes paid streaming, downloads and also revenue from ads supporting free streaming. Physical music revenues are lagging significantly behind at a mere $10 million annually, as are sales of concert tickets at around $270 million. While physical sales are decreasing, concert revenues are holding steady.

The Indian market is currently going through a transition from relying on free, ad-supported streaming to paid streaming. While subscriber numbers for the latter services have been growing robustly, the country is suspected to also have lost some audio streamers as free offers went away. Some analysts therefore believe that Indian digital music revenues were actually momentarily shrinking. However, in the long run, transitional bumps in the roads are expected to return to growth again.

The Indian music market is unique due to the overwhelming popularity of movie soundtracks, believed to be making up around 80 percent of music consumption. Like with so many aspects of India's economy, the informal music sector is presumed to outperform its official counterpart, with brass bands, DJs, independent musicians and engineers as well as informal instrument and merchandise makers potentially turning over many times the revenues of the formal music industry.