In 2025, Indian artists saw a significant increase in royalties earned through Spotify, with overall growth reaching 29%. This surge was not limited to Hindi film music; royalties from Telugu music skyrocketed by over 120% year on year. Other regional music genres also experienced notable gains: Marathi royalties rose nearly 50%, Bengali by around 40%, and Malayalam by more than 30%. Hindi music royalties approached a 30% increase, while Tamil music saw a growth of 20%.
The figures come from Spotify’s annual Loud and Clear report, which tracked more than $11 billion paid out to the music industry globally last year. Indian artists drew nearly 335 billion streams, or over 20 billion hours of listening. Listeners worldwide played an Indian artist they had never heard before 12.8 billion times, 14% more than the year before. The number of Indian artists making over Rs 1 crore a year on Spotify rose 21%, and the count crossing Rs 5 crore has more than doubled since 2023. Streams in the language have grown nearly seven times between February 2023 and February 2026, and close to 100 Haryanvi acts now sit inside Spotify India’s top 5,000 artists. More than 40% of what Indian artists earned on Spotify last year came from listeners outside India. Of the 15 most exported tracks, 11 were independent releases from AP Dhillon, Karan Aujla, Hanumankind, Anuv Jain and Kushagra. Anirudh Ravichander’s Tamil album Coolie crossed 100 million streams in 10 days. At home, 90% of the tracks on Spotify India’s Daily Top 50 were by Indian artists, and half the year-end top ten came from outside film soundtracks. Aditya Rikhari’s Sahiba held the number one spot in India for more than 11 straight weeks. Jasmine Sandlas rode her Dhurandhar songs to number three on Spotify’s Global Top 200, while local streams of Indian women artists grew 27%.
The earnings are also spreading. Haryanvi is the sharpest example. The platform extended its Radar programme to Malayalam this year, after Punjabi and Tamil. The language a song is in no longer decides how far it travels. Get the latest technology news and updates. Download the TOI App.