India’s music industry is finally witnessing a long-awaited shift from free to paid consumption, with revenues and subscriptions climbing steadily.
Yet the transition remains fragile. Sustaining the move from free to paid listening is critical, especially at a time when AI-generated versions of songs threaten to divert streams from original works and pirated sources continue to undercut legitimate consumption.
Speaking to Mint, Victoria Oakley, chief executive officer of IFPI (International Federation of the Phonographic Industry)—the organisation that represents the interests of the recording industry worldwide—said the recent uptick in paid streaming marks a long-promised transition for India.
However, she cautioned that the regulatory framework around AI remains unclear, even as governments, including India’s, grapple with how to balance technological innovation with rights protection and fair monetization for the creative community.
Revenue uptick
According to a recent Ficci EY report, the Indian music segment, measured as revenues earned by music labels from licensing and other income, grew by 10% to reach ₹5900 crore in 2025. Music streaming reached an audience of approximately 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.
Oakley said this reflects a structural shift the industry has long been pushing for — but sustaining that momentum will require regulatory clarity and stronger monetization frameworks.
AI battleground
“For music of all kinds to continue to thrive in India, the biggest challenge we face is in the space around AI. We're currently in a world, in India and elsewhere, where people don't have clear rights or a regulatory system that ensures AI models can't just ingest a song to produce output without a license and without paying for it. And of course, the output of the product that pops out of the other end can compete with the original input,” Oakley told Mint.
Music record labels definitely want the works of the artists they represent to be used, but only in return for revenue, she pointed out. The way to achieve this is through fair licensing.
Oakley, who was in India to discuss such possibilities with the government, said the conversations were promising. “What's interesting is that India is looking for a solution. They’ve understood the case there and are looking for ways to ensure that licensing can happen,” Oakley added.
According to a recent IFPI survey, 70% of people in India agreed that their governments should introduce new rules to make AI developers more transparent about the content they used to develop their models.
“AI adds another layer of challenge to the discoverability of music because anyone sitting at home can create a profile, ingest a song and gain income for doing nothing. There is a need for immediate action on the AI front,” Priyanka Khimani, a legal expert in entertainment and music rights, had said in an earlier interview to Mint.
By ‘ingest’, she had meant to say that anyone can use AI to create a decent sounding song or one that sounds like a specific artiste. They can then create a duplicate artist profile on streaming platforms such as Spotify or YouTube and get paid per stream.
Piracy persists
Further, referring to piracy as a complicated field, Oakley said pirated sources have become harder to track and find since borderless access to music also means borderless access to pirates both within and outside of India.
“It remains a problem. The challenge we face in the Indian music industry is ensuring that this steady move from free to paid can continue at the right pace. Because that is the only way that we'll fuel investment in the music ecosystem. You need the money to go in and swell the machine in order for great artistry to come out,” Oakley said.
Better monetization by curbing piracy and ensuring regulations around AI would help artists with distribution and representation internationally, she pointed out, at a time when countries like South Korea have already demonstrated the use of soft power.
“There is such talent here, and I would love to see India take its rightful place on the global music stage,” she added.