As New Year’s Eve approaches and big cities gear up for packed parties, music is once again set to be the heartbeat of celebrations. But this festive season comes with a clear warning for hotels, clubs, restaurants and event organisers: playing copyrighted music without a valid licence could invite trouble.
The Indian Performing Right Society (IPRS) has signalled stricter enforcement in the weeks ahead, making music licences a must-have as party calendars fill up and compliance moves firmly into the spotlight.
It has stepped up legal action against unlicensed public performance of music in Bengaluru, Delhi and Calcutta, targeting commercial venues and year-end events playing copyrighted music without mandatory licenses.
Large-scale events such as Sunburn underscore the stakes. Even high-profile, ticketed festivals and concerts are legally required to secure music licences, with event organisers, ticketing platforms like BookMyShow, and venues all needing IPRS clearance to publicly perform copyrighted works. Non-compliance, IPRS says, directly impacts creator earnings despite the sector’s commercial growth.
Live events and background music contributed only around 14 percent of total royalties, far below global benchmarks, pointing to significant revenue leakage in physical venues and events, according to the CISAC (Confederation of Societies of Authors and Composers, an international non-governmental, not-for-profit organisation that aims to protect the rights and promote the interests of creators worldwide) Global Collections Report 2025.
India’s music royalties that grew 40.5 percent year-on-year to €80.5 million in 2024 is growing rapidly, however, unevenly.
In FY25, IPRS collected Rs 741.6 crore and distributed Rs 608.8 crore as royalties to songwriters, composers and publishers, the highest payout in its history. IPRS represents over 20,000 rights holders, and says court-backed enforcement during peak festive and live-event seasons is essential to sustaining India’s creator economy.
Unlike live events, the digital segment is driving more revenue for artists especially in markets like India. Digital revenue last year continued to account for the highest share of smaller global markets, with the top six—Mali, Nepal, Philippines, Indonesia, India and Vietnam—each surpassing 75 percent. For comparison, the digital market shares for USA, France and UK were 27.1 percent, 13.9 percent and 11.4 percent respectively.
Royalties from digital media include platforms like YouTube, Meta, Amazon Music, Spotify, Apple Music, among others.
IPRS is also in talks with streaming platforms like Netflix and Amazon Prime Video to collect royalties for background music used in their web content. It expects huge upside from the streaming segment. Its Chief Executive Officer (CEO) also believes that even 2 percent of total revenues of streaming platforms collected in terms of royalties will be huge revenue.
The report cited above also highlighted an upside from short form content. "We’re seeing short-form, professionally produced video emerging as a lucrative segment, particularly in China and India, where micro-dramas of one to two minutes per episode are attracting billions in ad-funded revenues, micropayments and bundled subscriptions."
India alone could see this category generate $5 to $10 billion in the next few years, while the US market is still in the early stages, the report added.
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