Revenue from the Indian music segment grew by 10% to reach ₹5,900 crore in 2025, according to a recent Ficci-EY report. However, even with the growth of music streaming services, which reached 178 million people, film producers have yet to reap the benefits of movie soundtrack sales as they struggle with declining ancillary rights, including from OTT and satellite TV.
Experts said subscriptions to audio streaming platforms such as Spotify and Amazon Music may be rising, but they haven't compensated for the ad-supported part of the business, which continues to compete unfavourably with other platforms for brand visibility. Plus, much of the revenue is driven by independent artists even as labels remain cautious and spend primarily on movie soundtrack albums that promise endurance or feature mainstream star casts.
“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, at Believe, a global digital music company.
Senior music industry executives also point out that film soundtrack prices had already spiked post-covid and for big-ticket titles especially, producers refused to settle for less despite the limited draw for songs. Currently, hit soundtracks such as Dhurandhar are estimated to have made ₹15 crore-20 crore from their music rights.
In India, acquisition prices for movie soundtracks are already significantly higher than they were over the past five years, Raina added.
“However, there is still a gap between the compensation, or revenue, being generated on the digital side, which is the majority of a label’s earnings as subscription growth is still not strong enough to compensate for the slowdown in ad-supported revenues or the shutdown of various services,” Raina explained.
Selective approach
Film producer Anand Pandit pointed out that while improved monetization may translate into higher acquisition prices for movie soundtracks, this isn’t true for every film.
“The approach today is far more selective. Earlier, producers often sold music rights largely as a lumpsum deal to support production costs. But now, labels look at music differently because they understand the long-term earning potential of a successful album,” Pandit said.
Labels are no longer just buying a soundtrack for its immediate promotional value; they are assessing its long-term streaming potential.
“They know virality cannot be guaranteed, so they are willing to pay premium prices mainly for albums that show ‘musical endurance’ - music that genuinely shows strong long-term potential. That can be one of the reasons why acquisition prices are rising selectively rather than uniformly across the industry,” Pandit explained.
"In theory, a stronger music economy should lead to higher acquisition prices for film soundtracks. However, in practice, pricing remains highly unpredictable and dependent on multiple variables—star power, music quality, marketing push and even social media traction," agreed Narendra Hirawat, chairman of NH Studioz, which specializes in content acquisition and distribution.
There are cases of films with relatively weaker music performing well commercially and others with top composers and singers not necessarily recovering costs. This unpredictability makes music labels cautious and take a dominant stance in negotiations, Hirawat added.
Experts agree that streaming subscription has grown, but it is still not the dominant revenue driver. According to Ficci-EY, the paid music subscriber base grew 27% to 14 million in 2025.
As the ecosystem expands, the core revenue for labels is still heavily dependent on streaming and rights management rather than subscriptions or newer monetization avenues. The real shift is not necessarily in scale yet, but in diversification of experiments, especially through brand collaborations and new ecosystem partnerships.
Subscription revenue
Ashish Pherwani, M&E (media and entertainment) sector leader at EY India, said paid subscriptions are expected to reach about 25 million by 2028. Music labels see incremental revenue from streaming platforms and music rights values have started to reflect this growth.
While subscription revenue and alternative monetization streams like live events have expanded the revenue pool, a parallel consolidation is taking place. Independent music apps have shut down and traditional platforms like music TV channels have declined.
So, while overall revenue is improving, they are also becoming more concentrated within fewer, stronger players, according to Hirawat.
However, according to Rohith Sobti, curator and co-founder of The Shakti Collective, an artist-first cultural house building a structured ecosystem for music, storytelling and cultural IP, rather than a blanket increase in pricing, the market is becoming more segmented.
“For most film soundtracks, especially mid and smaller scale projects, there is still no significant inflation in acquisition costs,” said Sobti. “Instead, what we are seeing is a more hybrid approach where deals are structured as revenue share, performance-linked models or distribution-led arrangements.”
Premium pricing is reserved for high-performing talent and strong IP-driven projects, while others are evaluated more on performance potential and structured deals, he said.