Streaming boom fails to lift movie soundtrack revenues

Revenue from the Indian music segment grew by 10% to reach ₹5,900 crore in 2025, according to a recent Ficci-EY report. Yet, the growth has brought little relief to film producers who continue to struggle with declining ancillary revenues from OTT and satellite TV rights, besides music.

- Lata Jha

Experts said while audio streaming services such as Spotify and Amazon Music now reach about 178 million listeners, rising subscriptions have not offset the slowdown in advertising-led revenues. Plus, much of the revenue is driven by independent artists even as labels remain cautious and spend primarily on movie soundtrack albums that feature mainstream star casts and have long-term appeal.

“Subscriptions are definitely on the rise. However, they are not yet at a level where they can compensate for the ad-supported business, which has long been the driving force and still contributes the majority of revenues for music labels,” said Vivek Raina, managing director, India, Believe, a digital music company.