MUMBAI: Hungama Music, one of the leading music streaming platforms in the country owned by Hungama Digital Media, today released the first Sound of Fame report revealing usage trends observed on its platform and sharing insights on music streaming habits of its users. With a 48% growth in its user base, 2018 can be termed as a breakthrough year in terms of adoption and digital music consumption. Affordable mobile Internet and an increase in smartphone usage have led to a sizeable rise in the consumption of on-demand music.

Displaying a voracious appetite for digital music, the platform registered a 37% growth in music streaming sessions since 2017. Users spent 145 million hours streaming music leading to a 22% growth in time spent listening per user. While the number of streams tripled since the year before, users downloaded 40 million songs in 2018, 29X more than 2017, for offline listening. Inexpensive data plans came as a respite to users, as annual data usage for streaming content across the Hungama network crossed 38,000 TB/ 38 million GB.

Speaking about the report, Hungama Digital Media Founder and CEO Neeraj Roy said, “The last few years have completely altered the music streaming landscape in the country. Affordable data plans and increasing smartphone usage are fast making streaming the go-to mode of music consumption for consumers. With urban India contributing steadily to the number of mobile data users and Tier II and III cities expected to charge ahead, the industry needs to focus on developing new models to monetize, beyond subscriptions and advertising.”

Regional India Taking the Lead

Number of streams and time spent listening (TSL) increased the most in North Eastern states, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Tamil Nadu and Karnataka, each registering a growth of 3.2X in both the categories. These were followed closely by West Bengal and Kerala with a 3X growth each. Maharashtra remained the state to receive the maximum streams in the year with a 16% contribution to the national figures, followed by Uttar Pradesh at 12%. The top 5 states – Maharashtra, Uttar Pradesh, Karnataka, Delhi and Gujarat contributed 53% to the total number of streams received in the year.

Users are also showing an increased preference for content that is local and in their language. Surpassing the annual growth seen in Hindi music streaming, Punjabi, Tamil, Kannada, Bhojpuri, Marathi and Bengali each registered a growth exceeding 2.5X. Though, at 52% Hindi remains the largest contributor to the total number of streams, non-Hindi languages are increasingly gaining a stronger foothold with Punjabi contributing 15%, Tamil, Telegu, Kannada and Malayalam together grabbing a 13.5% in the national streaming pie. Availability of international content is making it easier for Indians to discover and explore non-native content as well. While English showed a growth of 2.3X and had a 13% share in the total streaming numbers, consumption of music in other languages like Arabic, Spanish, French, Turkish and Portuguese increased as well.

Changing Music Preferences

The report also threw light on changing consumer preferences and tastes in music. The year 2018 can easily be called the year of remakes with 25% of Bollywood music’s consumption coming from remakes. The most popular Hindi song of 2018 – Dilbar (Satyamev Jayate) is itself a remake of a 1999 track. At the same time, hip hop fever gripped listeners of English music with consumption for the genre nearly doubling since 2017. The year also saw Punjabi music leave the biggest mark it has in the last few years with Kya Baat Ay by Harrdy Sandhu getting more streams than popular Hindi songs, Dekhte Dekhte (Batti Gul Meter Chalu) and Dil Chori (Sonu Ki Titu Ki Sweety). Independent music gained traction as well with Badshah’s Buzz featuring amongst the top 10 songs of the year and receiving more streams than the albums of Sanju and Gold.

Hungama Music Sound of Fame is a report that highlights the trends and consumption patterns observed on Hungama Music – one of the largest music streaming platforms in the country. It also provides an insight into emerging genres, popular content and artistes.

Key Highlights:

·       2.9X growth in time spent listening and 3X growth in the number of streams since 2017

·       A cumulative of 145 million hours spent by users streaming music

·       Maharashtra, Uttar Pradesh and Karnataka stream music the most with 16%, 12% and 10% contribution to national stream numbers respectively

·       An increasing preference for non-Hindi content with other languages contributing 48% to total streams; at 15% contribution Punjabi emerges as the second most streamed language after Hindi

·       Remakes and remixes rule the charts and comprise one-fourth of Bollywood music’s consumption