Indian artists had a landmark 2025 on Spotify, with royalties growing 29% year-on-year, according to the platform’s latest Loud & Clear report. The growth was broad-based across languages, with Telugu royalties surging over 120%, followed by Marathi (nearly 50%), Bengali (nearly 40%), Malayalam (over 30%), Hindi (nearly 30%) and Tamil (20%).
The number of artists earning over Rs 1 crore annually rose 21% year-on-year, while those crossing Rs 5 crore have more than doubled since 2023. Globally, listeners discovered a new Indian artist 12.8 billion times in 2025, up 14%, with Indian artists streamed nearly 335 billion times-over 20 billion listening hours.
Independent music continued gaining ground, with 90% of tracks on Spotify India’s Daily Top 50 coming from Indian artists. Aditya Rikhari’s “Sahiba” held the number-one spot for 11 consecutive weeks, while artists like Kushagra, Anuv Jain and Jasleen Royal also featured among top performers.
Dhruvank Vaidya, head of music & podcast, Spotify India, highlighted the scale of global discovery and streaming growth, noting Telugu’s standout performance.
Haryanvi music saw nearly seven-fold streaming growth since 2023, with almost 100 Haryanvi acts now ranking among Spotify India’s top 5,000 artists. Spotify also expanded its Radar programme to Malayalam.
More than 40% of Indian artists’ royalties in 2025 came from international listeners, spread across languages rather than concentrated in Hindi. Female Indian artists saw local streams grow 27%, with Jasmine Sandlas reaching number three on Spotify’s Global Top 200 via the Dhurandhar soundtrack.
