Indian music royalties hit new high amid digital boom, Netflix and Amazon on radar

Royalties for music artists increasing

The digital boom in India is striking the right chord with the country's authors, composers and publishers as royalties surge to new highs and now their music copyright society is eyeing a share in the streaming pie.

Indian Performing Right Society Ltd. (IPRS) which collected royalties of over Rs 700 crore in FY25 attributes the increase to digital explosion. The Society represents thousands of Indian authors, composers, and publishers of music.

Digital boom

"In the last few years, the major explosion across the world has happened on the digital front. Digital revenues have shot up across the globe. In Asian markets, anywhere between 60 to 90 percent has been digital income (in terms of royalties). We have been close to 80 percent," said Rakesh Nigam, CEO of IPRS.

Royalties from digital media include platforms like YouTube, Meta, Amazon Music, Spotify, Apple Music, among others.

IPRS is now in talks with streaming platforms like Netflix and Amazon Prime Video to collect royalties for background music used in their web content.

"Music does not only mean songs. It also includes background music. We have started approaching platforms so from this year or next year, we will also start getting revenues from video OTT (over the top) platforms."

Nigam expects huge upside from the streaming segment. He said that even 2 percent of total revenues of streaming platforms collected in terms of royalties will be huge revenue.

"In the next 5-7 years, I believe the way Netflix and Amazon Prime are growing, the potential can be huge. When these platforms had started, playtime of Indian movies was close to 5 percent in 2019. But today, 40-45 percent of the content which is being consumed on these platforms is coming from India.

Untapped opportunity

In FY25, IPRS distributed royalties in excess of Rs 600 crore. A year before, it was Rs 500 crore. This financial year, it expects collections to grow by over 10 percent with higher expectations from the public performance segment.

Nigam pointed out that in the advanced markets like the UK, the US, Canada and Europe, digital income is close to 50 percent as they see huge collections from broadcasting and general public performance.

"Royalties from general public performance is an untapped opportunity. In FY25, we ended up with Rs 100 crore from public performance. But the market is pretty huge. General public performance means music played in hotels, restaurants, malls, shops and events. So that's a huge area. If the right push comes, in the next four to five years, we can actually triple or increase collections by four times. In the next five years, revenue from 100 crore, can grow up to Rs 400 or 500 crore," he said.

The organised live events segment grew by 15 percent in 2024 to Rs 10,100 crore backed by the growth of ticketed events, according to the 2025 FICCI-EY report. The music concert space saw significant growth with an estimated all-time high of 70 to 80 concert days with audiences of 10,000 or more last year.

IPRS is working on a single window licensing to streamline royalty collections from this segment.

Take the UK's example, he said. "Around 10 years back, they had around 3,50,000 public performance licenses. In India, we still don't have more than 30,000-35,000 licenses. There is a huge gap."

Rise of indie artists

He also pointed out that a country like the UK has got more than 60,000 authors and composers as members. "Including publishers, they have got close to 1,00,000 members. So, imagine India with such a huge population."

Nigam expects to add another 2,000 members to the existing pool of 18,000 artists by 2027.

A lot of independent artists are leading the charge when it comes to growing the IPRS member pool.

"Until five years ago, music was dominated by films across languages. The only industry which was very strong in non-film music was Punjabi. In the last two-three years, around 20-25 percent of the music being streamed or listened to is independent music. So, the people who are joining IPRS are not film artists and more than 50 percent of our new members are independent artists from across markets."

He added that after Covid, there has been a huge explosion in the number of songs getting released by independent artists.

This is also because copyright exists for 60 years after the death of the author. "This has helped not just the creators, but it is also helping the legal heirs of the creators to see that when everyone is enjoying the music created by legends, they are getting their due in terms of royalties. Creators are feeling more charged whenever they create work that they will not go under-recognised or will have to struggle for money."

India's potential

Nigam sees a lot of potential in India in terms of royalties. While he said that not many Indians pay for music subscription currently, there is expectation of growth in the subscriber base in the next five years.

"In western markets, the use of music is getting saturated. So, when platforms are looking at growth markets they have only two--- India and China. In Asia, IPRS ranks fourth in terms of collections and in global ranking we are 22, up from 46 six years back," Nigam said.

IPRS, along with the world's leading network of authors' societies CISAC (the International Confederation of Societies of Authors and Composers), is developing a strategic roadmap aimed at positioning India among the world’s top 10 creative economies. This includes targeted efforts to strengthen digital collections, address non-digital revenue challenges, and improve the licensing and distribution ecosystem.

CISAC's analysis highlighted the growth in total collections to Rs 700 crore in 2024, representing growth of over 42 percent versus 2023 and more than four-fold over the past five years. India’s ranking for creators’ collections rose from 37 to 23 between 2019 and 2023.

However, CISAC noted that India's total collection remains well below its potential for such a large market.

"The main problem lies in the low penetration of paid or premium streaming services. Of equal concern for creators is the low performance of non-digital revenue streams," it said.