India’s music market is producing numerous noise, and attracting numerous capital.
Common Music Group, Warner Music, Sony, Consider, Reservoir, and a rising solid of worldwide music corporations and buyers have all made vital strikes within the nation in recent times. They’ve focused every thing from Bollywood soundtracks and Punjabi catalogs to regional-language labels and dwell leisure.
One of the vital consequential current offers, nevertheless, arrived in April 2023, when New York-headquartered Main Wave Music made a strategic funding in Instances Music, the Mumbai-based file label and music writer owned by media conglomerate The Instances Group. The Wall Avenue Journal reported on the time that the deal fashioned a three way partnership valued at over USD $100 million.
“We began working the telephones, doing on-line highway exhibits, chilly calling folks,” remembers Instances Music CEO Mandar Thakur concerning the firm’s seek for a strategic companion forward of signing the Main Wave deal.
“We obtained a name again from everybody. Then, sooner or later, out of the blue, I obtained a name from a gentleman known as David Loiterton [President, Indo & Asia Pacific at Primary Wave], whose spouse had labored with me at Channel V.
“He stated, ‘I work with this firm known as Main Wave.’ They have been the one firm we had not reached. Larry [Mestel], the founder [and CEO], was on the cellphone inside a few days. The truth that they jumped on the chance that quick impressed me.”
Since then, Instances Music has accomplished three catalog acquisitions: Symphony Recording Co., a outstanding participant in Tamil devotional music; ARC Musicq, a pioneering Kannada label; and, most not too long ago, Punjabi specialist Catrack Leisure, whose catalog spans what the corporate describes as a “golden period” of the style, that includes recordings by Babbu Maan, Malkit Singh, and Channi Singh.
“Our thesis stays: it’s obtained to be golden and legendary,” says Thakur of the corporate’s acquisition technique. “It’s like discovering tough diamonds.”
Punjabi music has emerged as one of many fastest-growing genres globally in recent times, with artists like Diljit Dosanjh, AP Dhillon, and Karan Aujla breaking into mainstream Western markets. Thakur guess on the style early: Instances Music’s 2016 alliance with Pace Data, which he describes because the world’s prime Punjabi label, was the catalyst for the corporate’s fast development and, in the end, the Main Wave partnership.
At the moment, Instances Music additionally operates by means of two sub-labels: Junglee Music for movie soundtracks and ffs for impartial releases. The corporate used to sub-publish in India for Warner Chappell and Peermusic, and nonetheless sub-publishes for Wixen, Cloud 9, Riptide, amongst others.
“We guess very closely on the Punjabi music market, and look the place it’s immediately.”
Thakur is a three-decade-plus veteran of India and South Asia’s music enterprise. His profession started within the late Nineteen Eighties as an assistant to a lighting designer on live performance levels in Mumbai. He then spent a two-year stint with a outstanding regional live performance promoter in Hong Kong earlier than a seven-year run as Head of music and expertise business relations/programming at Channel V. The latter was the Rupert Murdoch-backed music tv station that grew to become a dominant power in Indian popular culture through the Nineties.
From there, Thakur co-founded Soundbuzz, which he describes as Asia and India’s first digital music distribution firm, “technically based 20 days earlier than Napster.” After Soundbuzz was acquired by Motorola in 2008, Thakur moved into consultancy, and Instances Music got here calling.
He joined as COO in 2010, initially viewing it as a “three-to-four 12 months” turnaround job. Sixteen years on, he’s CEO, and the corporate he inherited, a predominantly bodily boutique label, has been remodeled into considered one of India’s most lively impartial music corporations.
In response to Luminate knowledge, India is now the world’s second-largest music streaming market by complete on-demand quantity, with 489.9 billion streams in 2025. That locations it behind solely the US (1.5 trillion) and forward of Mexico, Brazil, and Germany. India additionally added the fourth-most internet new premium on-demand streams of any market globally final 12 months, with premium streaming quantity rising 42%.
However 84% of India’s streaming market stays ad-supported, and Thakur argues the chance is extensively misunderstood.
The addressable viewers, he says, just isn’t your entire 1.4 billion inhabitants, however nearer to “750 million, of which 550 million are related to broadband and 350 million are repeatedly consuming music.” India “is a quantity market,” he explains. “The yield is a a lot decrease common income per consumer [than Western markets].”
However he pushes again firmly on the concept that Indian shoppers gained’t pay for digital leisure. “That’s an uninformed view,” he says. The proof backs him up: JioHotstar, India’s dominant video streaming platform, reached 280 million paid subscribers inside months of its February 2025 launch, pushed largely by IPL cricket transferring behind a paywall.
In contrast, in keeping with a joint report from EY and FICCI, solely 14.4 million Indians pay for a music streaming subscription. “It’s been a free market too lengthy, however the changeover has already begun,” says Thakur. “And our charge of development [in paid subscriptions] is considerably increased in comparison with the speed of development of the free buyer.”
Thakur is bullish on what comes subsequent for each his firm and the broader Indian music business, and says Instances Music is getting ready to announce additional acquisitions within the close to time period.
“We’re on the brink of announce two or three large [deals] over the course of the following few months,” he reveals.
However first, Thakur meets MBW to debate his profession, the Main Wave partnership, India’s subscription problem, and why he believes we’ll proceed to see the explosion of Indian music globally.
How did you get into the music enterprise?
There was no actual large plan. I grew up in a small city in India within the late Nineteen Eighties, and your choices have been: physician, engineer, or lawyer. I obtained into music at an early age, listening to BBC Radio, pirated cassette tapes from Dubai, hungrily devouring used magazines, and watching the ’87 Grammys. I fell in love with the artists and the music behind it.
I learn an interview with a band, known as them up, surprising them, after I pitched to grow to be their roadie. I feel the band was shocked as a result of nobody else had known as them. The roadie bit was short-lived. I grew to become an assistant to a lighting designer for stage live shows, and that was my actual entry level. I labored on the most important live shows, together with the primary Indian music fest, Independence Rock, and discovered about rehearsals, lighting aesthetics, and performances. That’s actually my begin.
You joined Instances Music as COO in 2010. What was the state of the corporate?
Once we bought Soundbuzz to Motorola, the primary M&A transaction within the historical past of the Asian digital music [and] telecom enterprise, Motorola itself went bust. After I moved out, Instances Music got here to me and wished me to seek the advice of; to maneuver what was then a predominantly bodily firm, a boutique label, into [a digital business].
“It was a operating joke on the time: simply popping out of a digital firm: ‘Why would you be part of a file label?’ “
I seemed upon it as a gig of three to 4 years. Flip the corporate round, transfer it absolutely to digital. The type of us at [the Times Group] stated, ‘We wish to develop it, however we wish to do it the appropriate method.’ One factor led to the opposite, and right here we’re.
It was a operating joke on the time: simply popping out of a digital firm: ‘Why would you be part of a file label?’ However the one thought in my head was: if the digital business goes up, the music business, which is its prime provider, is sure to rebound. If I get in on the backside, I’ll be capable to impact change.
In 2016, you made an enormous guess on Punjabi music with Pace Data. That led to fast development, and ultimately to the Main Wave deal. What was it about Main Wave that made them the appropriate companion?
They have been the primary [such company] to have a look at India as a chance, method earlier than another investor. They don’t seem to be actually a typical fund. It’s bunch of music business of us taking part in with capital and advertising. We simply hit it off from day one.
India is about Bollywood, proper? However we have been seeing knowledge. Earlier than knowledge grew to become cool, regional-language markets have been rising considerably, led by Punjabi music. We created a first-of-its-kind alliance with Pace Data, the most important Punjabi label on the planet. We guess very closely on the Punjabi music market, and look the place it’s immediately.
That gave us development and international potential. Then we felt we would have liked to speed up. We wanted anyone who was a companion, not simply capital. If I needed to increase capital, we might increase it domestically.
Internally, on the Instances Group, we thought: we’d like a strategic companion. You don’t want anyone who’s simply coming alongside on a pleasure trip for a short while. For that, a financial institution mortgage is best. India just isn’t a marketplace for the weak-hearted. It’s an extended gestation interval. Main Wave are sensible folks. They’re not the everyday fund that is available in to spray and pray. They’ve been round for 20 years. You’re seeing the fruition of these 20 years now.
Because the JV, you’ve accomplished three acquisitions. What does a catalog have to have so that you can wish to purchase it?
India is a song-driven economic system. Not like anyplace within the West, you’re not shopping for a author’s share of an enormous, legendary celebrity. You’re shopping for, successfully, different labels, a set of songs.
The thesis is: the fabric needs to be legendary. There aren’t any two methods about it. However every thing in India just isn’t gold. Within the final 5 years, there’s been not more than about six to eight [truly] consequential acquisitions.
Our thesis stays: it’s obtained to be golden and legendary, the catalog’s obtained to self-generate, and it’s obtained to [have] sizable [appeal with the] international diaspora. It’s like discovering tough diamonds.
India is attracting numerous worldwide funding. Is that impacting competitors by way of the value and availability of catalogs?
There’s numerous white noise. China shut itself off, and India emerged as the most important greenfield alternative. [Then] the capital follows the narrative.
Is it overvalued? Oh yeah, most actually. You’re speaking a couple of [top-tier] film soundtrack that would set you again USD $3.5 million to $4 million.
Wherever there’s extreme noise, there’s overvaluation. The whole lot just isn’t gold.
The place do you see the most important international alternative for Indian music?
Our largest alternative really lies exterior of India. You must put on the hat that you just’re within the enterprise of audiences, not within the enterprise of simply music. I hate the overused phrase ‘collaboration’. Nothing nice got here out of a music camp. No celebrity grew to become what they’re as a result of they collaborated solely.
The chance is the ‘boring’ alternative. You will have a diaspora with a big urge for food for homegrown tradition, and that can cross over slowly into mainstream audiences.
Tradition crosses over. It’s essential to acknowledge that. Artists will break globally not simply because they’re Indian, however as a result of they’ve international attraction and the songs. Past that, India has a 250-year-plus historical past of music that’s fully distinctive, mixed with [the fact that] a big a part of the inhabitants has English as a second language.
After the Korean explosion, everybody’s in search of successful in every single place. The one different alternative that I nonetheless consider [exists] at a multiplication stage is Indian music.
In response to a joint EY and FICCI report, solely 8% of India’s 178 million music streamers are paying subscribers, and paid streams account for round 3% of the nation’s complete streams. What wants to vary?
The very first thing to deal with is the ‘Indian shoppers don’t pay’ narrative. That’s an uninformed view. We used to pay near 50 rupees, [around] $1, for a ring-back tone 20 years in the past. That service [at its peak] was 10% to 14% of the big telecom business’s turnover. Anyone who says Indian shoppers don’t pay was in all probability not born [at the time].
However Indians are infamous for worth. When you’ve gotten a inhabitants this huge, what occurs is: if I’ve obtained 10 fingers and 5 rings, I minimize the 5 rings in half. That’s what I name the ARPU price. The yield in the remainder of the world is instantly in proportion to the audiences they serve. The yield in India, by the sheer scale and measurement of the inhabitants, is a a lot decrease common income per consumer. India is a quantity market. That’s commentary quantity two.
Quantity three: when Jio began giving free broadband, our have to pay was fulfilled by a free service known as YouTube. Each streaming app was sitting on the aspect of YouTube. In the event you habituate somebody to free, they’re going to stay with free till they attain the final platform that forces them to go paid.
I consider we’re at that stage immediately. India has seen numerous platforms disappear. [Wynk, Resso, and Hungama have all shut down.] YouTube’s personal subscription service is rising as a result of individuals are fed up with adverts. Spotify has began advertising [Premium]. We’re debating: do we have to put new merchandise behind paywalls? Do we have to put the catalog behind paywalls? We’re keen to take short-term hits to develop the subscription enterprise.
We cost someplace within the area of 100 rupees [per month], about [$1.20], in comparison with [$12.99] within the US [for Spotify]. It’s 1/tenth of that worth. However the paying buyer is de facto solely within the prime 5 metros. Your viewers lies within the mini metros and center India.
What are your ambitions for Instances Music over the following two to 3 years?
India is correct now in a bear market, transferring towards ‘anyone’s obtained to pay for music’. We’re the speedboat that may transfer quicker than an oil tanker. We’re surgical about our alternatives.
We’re on the brink of announce two or three large [deals] over the course of the following few months. We’re releasing considered one of Bollywood’s largest ensemble motion pictures in a few years, Welcome to the Jungle (No.3), with the most important star solid ever assembled.
And on the Main Wave aspect, the primary launch [from an Indian artist into the US market] will likely be [by] Deedar Kaur, a remake of [a] Sarah McLachlan observe, Angel. In addition to Deedar, different Instances Music-signed artists Aarya and Kunwarr additionally wrote some unique tracks with DJ White Shadow [a producer on Lady Gaga’s Born This Way], in writing classes in Mumbai, and are slated for launch over the following two to 3 months.
Between these varied buckets, hopefully, we’re in place. I actually suppose the time is correct. It’s not just for us. I hope a few of our different business pals and colleagues and different labels additionally guarantee [their] acts escape, as a result of there’s no higher [time] than now.
In the event you might change one factor concerning the international music business, what would it not be?
We’d like personalities. We’re present enterprise. We’re not in music; we’re within the enterprise of exhibiting and promoting personalities to audiences by means of music.
In the event you take a look at Spotify’s numbers, there’s solely 12 or 13 [artists globally] that would qualify [as superstars]. That tells you what’s unsuitable with the business.
The cacophony round distribution and dashboards is pathetic. We’re leaning on artists to suppose that in the event that they self-release, they’re going to grow to be the most important stars on the planet. Exterior of Dangerous Bunny, what number of international superstars actually come out each month?
We don’t have to deal with the mechanics. Repair the product. Deliver on the nice outdated intercourse, medicine and rock and roll. You want to hearth up shoppers. I’m an old style believer: construct it and so they’ll come.
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