India Music Trends 2021 by Gaana puts the spotlight on podcasts, regional artists, and more

Gaana has announced the release of the India Music Trends 2021 It is a comprehensive report that covers top trends & insights from the world of music in the year gone by, capturing consumption behaviour of over 180Mn listeners.

The report captures interesting trends and shifts in the country’s music and audio listening preferences. Right from growth in regional content consumption to increase in podcast usage and enhanced engagement between fans and artists through exclusive content, live performances.

2021 was a grim year, but music emerged as a healer and a much needed source of entertainment. Audio content received healthy traction and emerged as a way to engage consumers with screen-free entertainment. 

Tanishk Bagchi was the most heard artist in 2021 with over 1.2 billion streams on Gaana, followed by Arijt Singh and Neha Kakkar. ‘Lut Gaye’, ‘Bewafa Tera Masoom Chehra’ and ‘Raataan Lambiyan’ were the most heard songs of 2021 while ‘Shershaah’, ‘Street Dancer 3D’ and ‘Kabir Singh’ were the most consumed albums. Artists like Tanishk Bagchi, Neha Kakkar, B Praak and Badshah garnered over 2X the streams on Gaana vis-a-vis another platform.

In 2021, consumption of podcasts grew by ~40 percent Y-O-Y. Gaana’s growing library of over 40,000 podcasts across genres and interests catered to this growing demand.  ‘Music’, ‘Motivation’, ‘Stories’ and ‘Devotional’ were the genres that dominated the charts and ‘Riya’s Retro’ was the most heard podcast of 2021. There was an increase in demand for podcasts from regional markets also, with consumption up by 32% from last year. And not just podcasts, love for regional music was also more powerful than ever in 2021 contributing ~40% to the total streams. Bhojpuri & Haryanvi were the biggest gainers with more than 15% increase compared to last year.

In addition to popular audio, curated experiences and premium content witnessed a considerable uptake among users. ‘Gaana Live’, the exclusive live streaming event platform, hosted some of the best artists in 2021, including Shankar Ehsaan Loy, in an exclusive event with over 17,000 subscribers watching the musical maestros live on the Gaana app. Global star Dua Lipa’s concert witnessed a whopping 1.4 Lakh+ attendees on Gaana. More than 1.5 Lakh viewers showed love to Indie artists performing live during the 4-day ‘Gaana Indie Fest’.

Also Read: Spotify introduces star ratings for podcasts

Commenting on the report, Sandeep Lodha, CEO, Gaana said, “In 2021, music & audio content evolved from just being a source of entertainment to an emotional support,  increasingly playing an important role in our daily lives and helping us snap out of the everyday monotony while playing the role of a non-intrusive accomplice. Being the original audio streaming player and most loved music streaming app in the country Gaana helped grow the entire audio landscape through our comprehensive efforts focused on customer centricity, innovations and targeted audience outreach.

The much awaited Gaana India Music Trends 2021 report has captured not only the audio preferences of more than 180Mn listeners but also some of the emerging trends in the industry. We at Gaana not only want to continue leading the ever-evolving audio ecosystem, but also pave the way for a new future with quality content and best in class industry leading features to our streaming platform.”

View the full report here: