“It’s been exactly 12 months since Spotify launched in India, and my, how we’ve grown,” is how the streaming service began a birthday blog post this morning. Unfortunately, what follows are NOT any figures showing how it’s grown in user numbers there since reporting two million in April last year. Instead, the blog post focuses on the number of Indian musicians using Spotify for Artists (6,400+); the number of cities they’re in (2,300+) and the number of curated playlists on Spotify in India (350, up from 120 at launch).
There’s also some information on listening habits, including the fact that the five most-streamed artists on Spotify in India over its first year are all local: Arijit Singh, Tanishk Bagchi, Neha Kakkar, Badshah, and Shreya Ghoshal.
The lack of updated user numbers may be less about those figures being disappointing, and more about Spotify preferring to keep such disclosures to its quarterly financial results – the 2m figure last year came in its Q1 announcement.
As we reported earlier this week, an independent report by research firms Kantar and Vtion claimed that, in India’s nine biggest cities, Spotify now has a 15% share of music streaming, level with Wynk Music, but behind JioSaavn (24%) and Gaana (30%).
Music Ally’s next Learn Live webinar will help you understand what’s required for artists to thrive in new international markets!