The Indian Music Charts Podcast
By Amit Gurbaxani and Akhila Shankar
The Indian Music Charts Podcast is hosted by music journalist/charts geek Amit Gurbaxani and content marketeer/data nerd Akhila Shankar. On the show, Amit and Akhila use India's music charts as a springboard for a larger discussion on the Indian music business, listener trends and where the industry is heading next. New episodes drop every Tuesday.
Latest episode
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Just How Far Is Indian Music Being Exported?
Earlier this month, Spotify shared some India-specific data as part of the 2024 edition of Loud & Clear, its annual report that details how and how much artists earn money through streams on the platform. Among the highlights were st… -
[Revisit] Why fewer international its are charting in India
If you were at Lollapalooza in Mumbai last weekend, and were among the thousands of fans who sang along to Shawn Mendes or Green Day, then you saw for yourself how India has become a major market for concerts and tours by international artis… -
Are label deals really that bad?
From Chapell Roan’s Grammy acceptance speech to country star Jelly Roll’s viral video, artists seem to be calling out label deals more frequently now than in recent memory. But are they really that bad? Why do rising talents continue to aspi… -
Why are catalogue hits back at the top of the charts?
In the streaming era, catalogue music - classified as songs that were released over 18 months ago - is doing better than ever before. It’s rare, however, for older tracks to crowd the top of the charts as they are right now. On this week’s e… -
Three Predictions for 2025
Will this be the year that sees more balanced gender representation among the biggest hits? Which Indian regional languages will grow? And can international artists regain some of the ground they’ve lost? We make educated guesses to provide … -
[Revisit] Coldplay, Diljit and the frenzy for gig tickets - Who is No.1 on the live charts?
With the Coldplay tour being all everyone is talking about this week, we revisit our conversation about India’s live music boom, the scramble for tickets, some of the highest attended international concerts and our predictions for which gig … -
How An OTT Show Generated A No.1 Hit ft. Shilpa Sharda
It’s rare for a song from a web series to generate a hit of the same magnitude as a Bollywood or major label release. With “Ishq Hai”, the focus track from the third season of the Netflix show Mismatched nearing the top spot, we got -
Year-End Special: What 2024 Sounded Like at the Top of the Charts
On this special episode, we crunch data related to the most-streamed songs of the year, and discuss the genres, artists and languages that defined 2024 on the charts. Among the things we talk about are whether the I-Pop hype is real, how cat… -
How Did K-Pop Become India’s Fastest-Growing International Genre? Ft. Riddhi Chakraborty
In any given week, hits by K-Pop acts are among the handful of international tracks on the chart. With “APT.” by Rosie and Bruno Mars rising to the top 20, and consequently becoming the highest-ranked non-Indian single on the survey so far t… -
When Will We Be Rid Of Rehashy Remakes?
Three new entries as well as the biggest climber on this week's chart are remakes. Why are they so popular when they rarely improve on the original versions? On this week's episode, we discuss why labels love recreating older hits, whether t…