Here Is The Key To Entering India's Multi Billion Music Industry
Akshat Mudbidri, CEO of Adventure Global Talent, gave us an in depth review of the Indian music scene, with valuable tips on how to become a success story in India
With both millenial traditions and cutting edge technology coexisting in harmony, India is a mesmerizing land for the whole world. This spiritual infused realm managed to embrace Western influences and integrated them with respect to its own cultural values like no other place on Earth. Same thing applies for the Indian music scene, a huge market that started to become very appealing at about the same time with the digital streaming services expansion towards East.
Whether we talk about hip hop, R&B or dance pop, it seems like the songs need a special kind of vibe, to become a successful story in India.
Well, we tried to unravel these secrets and see what does it take to breakthrough in India with Akshat Mudbidri, owner of Adventure Global Talent, one of the leading talent agencies there and currently the only Indian talent agency to manage international music artists exclusively for India.
Don’t forget to hit the Subscribe button below to join Soundfeed’s exclusive mailing list, along many music professionals and artists willing to receive essential information about the music industry we’re living in.
The idea of launching a company sparked into Akshat’s mind back in 2013. From 2010 he stepped also in the live concerts and PR business. Based in Mumbai, Adventure Global Talent has now expanded to Bangalore, Delhi, Mangalore and Hyderabad, with collaborations all the way to GCC, Australia and the USA. Not enough space here to list all the artists AGT has worked with, yet it’s worth mentioning Shah Rukh Khan, Shraddha Kapoor, Flo-Rida, Nadia Ali, Alexandra Stan, Paolo Mojo, Jay Sean, Akon, Akcent, Edward Maya a.s.o.
Can you give us a few figures just to make an idea of how big the music industry is in India?
The music world should know that India is one of the the biggest global music markets. If we take a cumulative total of the number of subscribers, considering all top music streaming platforms, we should be easily looking at a number of 200 million +. Revenue-wise, the total revenue generated from music streaming platforms only should be an approximate 3000 million and the total revenue from music business should be a whopping 10,000 million!
Coming to what is that ‘success factor’ in making a track a smash hit is surpassing that 100 million views milestone that catches everyone’s attention and automatically gets registered in the viewer’s mind that he or she is watching a hit track. It’s all very psychological, where seeing a big figure convinces you enough. A fan of that artist is definitely going to come back to the link to watch it again and again, which will eventually keep the views tracker ticking.
Talking about digital streamings, is Spotify king in India, also? Or is there a local competitor with a larger subscribers base?
Spotify is comparatively a new player in the Indian market, but is still gaining on top 3. Gaana is the Indian monopolist in the music streaming space with over 1 million + loyal subscribers, who will still trust the brand even if new players come in. Price point-wise, Gaana is again cheaper than Spotify for annual subscriptions, which makes it all the more a reason to subscribe to.
Does traditional media like TV and radio still have the power to generating hits and music stars? Or is it now enough to have a solid online followers base?
Pre covid times, TV and Radio were bearing the brunt to various DSP’s and OTT’s as work life was steady and most of the people in India spent time on the roads travelling and would stream in to their favorite music on the music streaming apps.
TV and Radio gained big time during the lockdown as people preferred the traditional system of tuning into the radio, where the content was intertwined between music playouts and jocks interacting with them. For that matter, watching a Vh1 too is adding a parameter to an artist’s success. Any artist is happy that his/her music is being played on TV and Radio. Hence, yes, TV and Radio still play a prominent role in an artist’s success drive.
Having good traction online is parallelly important to boast about figures whenever it is a criterion for brand influencing, shout-outs, etc.
A westerner should always think about the emotional connect to the Indian audience, as we are very emotional people and our music revolves around melody.
What does it take for a Western musician to breakthrough in India’s music mainstream?
The music scene in India is ever evolving. No genre dies completely. It still is existent, but the version of the genre keeps mutating further. There was a time when Dance Pop was the in thing, that later progressed into EDM, further on to Dubstep, Trap and so on. Today, it is the era of Moombathon, Dancehall and Afro beats infused in every song in some arrangement or the other. For instance, if we talking about this moment, it is Latin Pop and K Pop that are trending as genres. In a whole, India’s taste to music is very experimental and open minded. A westerner should always think about the emotional connect to the Indian audience, as we are very emotional people and our music revolves around melody. A magic formula of meaningful lyrics + soothing melody + a not too heavy beat pattern should break the ice with the Indian audience. NEW is always accepted!
You worked with a quite few artists from Europe, successfully raising their profile on the Indian music scene. PR wise, is there a recipe for success to make these “imports” appealing for the Indian scene?
Being brutally honest, I used the cheapest of the BTL campaigns in making the artists’ music even more popular in India. No TV, Radio or even YouTube could help me in building a profile for an artist when I go into Live and Music business back in late 2009. Cheap thrills like blasting music and driving through the city and CBD’s, making the DJ’s at nightclubs play the track as a closing track, forcefully queuing the track in the playlist at all resto cafes and coffee shops where youth would hang out. Remember we did not have DSP’s or OTT’s 10 years ago!
The modern PR methods were implemented only recently, which of course are additional PR tools for the profile building exercise. Catch that one USP from the artist’s music you can rely on and optimize, channelize the same through a spectrum, so that it has a 360 degree reach and is at least visibly convincing.
Do you have an example of a foreign artist who turned into a phenomenon in India in recent years?
You know very well I am going to say DHARIA for sure. This girl is a prodigy! I have found no one who is not impressed and flattered by her voice and the vocal variations. India has not heard a voice like that for ages! Though we know Tik Tok was pretty instrumental in making her a success, I think we need to give it up to the little girl for coming out with such a classic and Monoir for the music. I can put all my bets on her to say that she can just be the next Billie Eilish! 15 years of age and she has a long way to go.
Do you feel there are still cultural differences between the Western music scene and the Eastern one, despite all the globalization and digital revolution?
Thanks to the digital era actually, the world is now closer and is bridging the differences between music cultures. One name I will never forget to mention as an example of how an Indian artist has made the Western music world accept his music is NUCLEYA. He is a musical miracle from India who again, made use of an audio platform – Soundcloud, from which his music reached the world’s ears and today, he has represented India at the biggest of the global music festivals. His sound is unique and is new to the ears, which makes it addictive.
Old fashioned person to person meetings or emails over emails over email: what does best work for you?
I am not an oral person when it comes to voice conversations. I have a very short attention span and then my mind gets onto the next project. So yes, the latter – email communication over personal meetings.
Three artists always present into your home listening playlist.
Dua Lipa, Clean Bandit and Maitre Gims.