In February 2022, Spotify’s VP of markets and subscriber growth Gustav Gyllenhammar announced that it had “doubled our premium subscriber base” in India – but without placing a number on those subscribers.
Now, a new report by Redseer Strategy Consultants says that, of paid DSP services in India, Spotify has now established itself as the market leader, capturing 26% of (paid) streams in the financial year ending March 31st 2023.
It’s an interesting claim, simply because there is so much streaming competition in India: alongside the usual western DSP names, there are a host of local services like Gaana, Jio Saavan, and Wynk – and there are still no hard numbers on Spotify subscribers.
The report places Spotify’s success in its decision to “focus on penetration in Hindi and vernacular languages, beyond just international music”, and the report also breaks down the importance that “vernacular streams” (i.e. music localised to a region) is having: this subset of music has experienced the most rapid growth in the last financial year and accounted for 34% of music streams.
Punjabi has the largest – 39% – share of vernacular music, it says, but the South Indian market has seen strong growth in user base and engagement, also driven by music in languages from the region.
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