India’s streaming industry is entering a new phase of monetization, where platforms are looking beyond subscriber growth and towards extracting higher value from different consumer segments.
As paid subscription growth in India’s music business remains slow yet steady, Amazon Music India is launching a three-tiered pricing strategy to lure more non-Prime users into its fold. The audio streaming platform was so far an advertisement-free experience that didn’t charge customers separately and was part of the Amazon Prime bundle along with video and shopping.
It will now be available in tiers: one, a free and ad-supported service for both Prime and non-Prime users; two, as the existing Amazon Music India offering for Prime users paying the wider package subscription that will now include ads, and three, as Amazon Music Unlimited that will require Prime users to pay ₹99 per month over and above their Prime subscription for an ad-free experience. Non-Prime users can get this for ₹119 a month. The third and premium tier will offer the maximum benefits, including HD and ultra HD audio and Dolby Atmos sound, along with offline downloads. The catalogue will be the same across tiers.
Amazon Music Unlimited will launch on 2 June, while the free tier will go live in July.
“We took a call back in 2018 to launch as part of Prime, given that the market was very fragmented and there was really no identity for anybody. But we’ve evolved the product over the last eight years and made significant enhancements to it, including X-ray features, lyrics, video and livestream capabilities, and so on,” Rishabh Gupta, country head, Amazon Music India, told Mint.
This comes alongside changes in the broader consumer landscape with increasing digital and smartphone penetration. “When we put the two together, we felt that this is the time to evolve the business, there is a market for every segment of the consumer class, so we need to cater to all of them and not just the Prime customers,” he added.
To be sure, existing Prime customers who may already be consuming music on Amazon Music India as part of the broader Prime package will have the option of transitioning to a superior listening experience.
Gupta said the company has adopted a similar model in several other markets and has seen a healthy rate of transition. While currently Amazon Music India operates as an ad-free platform, going forward, if users choose to not transition to Amazon Music Unlimited, they shall be served limited ads and no option to download songs. Existing Prime customers will, however, get a six-month free trial to the Unlimited service post launch.
Competitive landscape
In India, Amazon Music competes with Swedish streaming service Spotify that also offers tiered pricing: Premium Lite for ₹139 a month, offering an ad-free experience, while the ₹199 Premium Standard plan includes access to tracks, playlists, and podcasts. Spotify Premium Platinum has added features of an AI DJ, AI playlist or third-party DJ integration and mixing tools, along with two additional household seats, for ₹299 per month. Last year, Spotify had raised prices by 28%, the first since its 2019 India debut. And there's Reliance Industries-owned JioSaavn, which offers individual ( ₹99 a month), student ( ₹49 a month) and Pro Lite ( ₹9 per day) plans.
While music content across film and non-film genres remains the same across audio streaming services, Amazon Music India is focusing on strengthening editorial intellectual properties (IPs) that include shoulder content, ranging from 2 to 20-minute videos, touching upon themes like what may be going on in an artiste’s mind before going on stage at a concert, and so on.
Further, while the platform is open to all kinds of podcasts, it targets some exclusive and early access deals as well, besides streaming on-ground events. The platform currently hosts over 15 million podcasts episodes and has 60-plus exclusive early access podcast partnerships in India. Around 70% streams are driven by Indian language content. Bollywood remains the most-streamed genre, with a customer spread of over 83% while Indian pop (customer spread of 77%), hip-hop (customer spread of 50%) and indie are key growth areas.
Streaming growth
According to a recent Ficci-EY report, the Indian music segment, measured as revenues earned by music labels from licensing and other income, grew 10% to ₹5,900 crore in 2025. Music streaming reached an audience of about 178 million who heard 5.8 trillion streams during the year, a 15% growth over 2024. Of the above, the paid subscriber base grew to reach 14 million, a 37% growth over 2024, driven by significant efforts by music platforms to disincentivize free music consumption.
Gupta did not disclose figures on Amazon Music India’s user base.
To be sure, after years of building large subscriber bases through aggressive pricing and bundled offerings, streaming platforms are recalibrating their strategies to align revenue growth with rising content and acquisition costs.
In many cases, this means charging users more for the same content, but in subtler ways. In April, JioHotstar and Warner Bros. Discovery expanded their partnership with the launch of HBO Max in India. The service is now available as a separate hub on the platform for an add-on pack starting at ₹49 per month. Earlier, the HBO library was included within the JioHotstar subscription. Last year, Amazon Prime Video announced that movies and shows on the streaming service would carry ads. A new ad-free add-on option will be there at an additional ₹699 per year or ₹129 per month, effectively requiring users to pay more to continue watching the same content ad-free.
“The shift in the monetization model reflects a natural evolution of India’s OTT landscape, as platforms transition from a pure scale game to sustainable unit economics. Instead of opting for abrupt price hikes, which risk consumer pushback, they are introducing layered monetization structures that protect the base while unlocking higher value from premium-seeking cohorts,” Rajesh Sethi, partner and leader - media, entertainment and sports at PwC India had told Mint in an earlier interview. What may be perceived by some price-sensitive users as paying more for the same content is, in reality, a strategic segmentation play, he said.
Mature users and franchise loyal audiences typically absorb such shifts, especially when higher tiers deliver differentiated value, Sethi said.