Exploring Music Programmes on Audio Platforms

Music is arguably the most universally consumed form of audio content on the planet. Whether someone is commuting on a Mumbai local, studying in a college dorm, or cooking in a rural kitchen in Bihar, there’s a strong chance they have music playing in their ears. The rise of audio platforms – from terrestrial radio to on-demand streaming apps – has fundamentally changed how people access, discover, and experience music. And in a country as culturally rich and musically diverse as India, music programmes on these platforms aren’t just entertainment. They are a reflection of identity, heritage, and everyday life.

The global popularity of music programmes 🔗

Music isn’t just popular – it dominates all other forms of audio content by a wide margin. According to Grand View Research, the audio segment led the streaming market with a 73.2% revenue share in 2024, driven largely by the accessibility of music on smartphones and the appeal of curated playlists. On the global scale, Luminate’s 2024 annual report confirmed that the world crossed nearly 4.8 trillion audio streams, a 14% jump year-on-year. That’s not a niche figure – it’s a civilisation-scale engagement with music as a daily ritual.

The global music streaming market was valued at approximately USD 46.66 billion in 2024 and is projected to reach USD 108.39 billion by 2030, growing at a CAGR of nearly 15%. The growth is underpinned by three key forces: smartphone proliferation, affordable data connectivity, and the shift toward personalised, on-demand listening experiences.

A critical point that explains music’s dominance over other audio formats is genre-driven loyalty. Listeners don’t just want “music” – they want their music. Individual genre preferences directly shape listening habits, platform choices, and even subscription decisions. This is why music programmes – whether on traditional radio or a modern streaming app – are always structured around specific genre formats, tailored to their target audiences.

Music streaming in India: a market defined by diversity 🔗

India occupies a unique position in the global audio landscape. It is one of the world’s fastest-growing music streaming markets, and its consumption patterns look unlike any other country’s. According to research from SonoSuite, India’s audio streaming services saw a 40% increase in listeners during the pandemic alone, and streaming platforms came to own 85.1% of the Indian music business market share in 2020. Affordable internet access driven by 4G rollout and low data costs – largely catalysed by the launch of Jio – made music streaming accessible to hundreds of millions of new users in a very short span of time.

According to a KenResearch market report, regional music alone accounted for 34% of total music consumption in India in 2023, reflecting the enormous demand for vernacular content across the country’s 121-plus languages. Platforms like JioSaavn, Gaana, and Wynk Music have responded by building deep catalogues in Hindi, Bengali, Tamil, Telugu, Punjabi, Malayalam, and dozens of other languages. The top five platforms shaping India’s audio market in 2026 are YouTube Music, JioSaavn, Spotify, Gaana, and Apple Music – each catering to slightly different demographic and genre preferences.

What makes India’s music market structurally distinct is that both global and homegrown services thrive side by side. As researchers at the University of Leeds have noted, Indian record companies and musical tastes are not only resisting but actively challenging the cultural dominance of Western music streaming platforms, with Indian artists like Arijit Singh consistently ranking among the most-followed musicians on Spotify worldwide.

Formats of music programmes on audio platforms 🔗

Music on audio platforms isn’t simply a playlist of random songs. Programmes – whether on FM radio, internet radio, or streaming apps – are structured around specific formats that serve particular audiences. In the Indian context, these formats are broadly shaped by regional and indigenous preferences and can be categorised into five major types: Classical, Light Music, Folk and Tribal, Film Music, and Western Music.

Classical music programmes 🔗

Indian classical music is among the oldest and most sophisticated musical traditions in the world. According to Wikipedia’s article on Indian classical music, it has two major traditions – Hindustani (North Indian) and Carnatic (South Indian) – both of which are rooted in ancient Vedic literature and the Sanskrit treatise Natyashastra. Hindustani music emphasises improvisation around ragas (melodic frameworks), while Carnatic performances are typically composition-based and more structured.

Classical music programmes on audio platforms are among the most specialised in format. They typically feature extended performances – a single raga-based composition can last 30 to 90 minutes – and require a listener with a degree of musical knowledge to fully appreciate. Dedicated internet radio stations like Sangeet Samvaad stream Indian classical music 24/7, and platforms like Spotify and YouTube Music maintain curated playlists covering forms like Dhrupad, Khyal, Thumri, and Carnatic kritis. These programmes attract a niche but deeply committed audience – typically older listeners, music students, and classical enthusiasts.

Light music programmes 🔗

Light music occupies the space between classical rigour and mass popular appeal. It includes forms like ghazals (Urdu lyrical poetry set to music), bhajans (devotional songs), nazms, and non-film geets – songs valued for their melodic depth and poetic content rather than their commercial punch. Light music programmes are typically soothing and conversational in tone. On FM radio, RJs hosting such segments often speak softly, pair songs with poetic context, and create an atmosphere suited to quiet evenings or reflective moods.

This format appeals primarily to a mature listenership that values lyrical sophistication. On streaming platforms, light music playlists are frequently recommended during late-night or low-energy listening sessions, and algorithms increasingly recognise the mood-based nature of this genre to serve it contextually. Legendary artists like Jagjit Singh in ghazal and Lata Mangeshkar in devotional genres continue to command vast streaming numbers even decades after their recordings, which speaks to the timeless appeal of this format.

Folk and tribal music programmes 🔗

Folk music is perhaps the most culturally grounded of all music formats – it is music born directly from a community’s lived experience. India’s folk music traditions are extraordinarily diverse: Bhangra from Punjab, Bihu from Assam, Garba and Dandiya from Gujarat, Lavani from Maharashtra, Baul from Bengal, Chhau from Jharkhand, and hundreds of tribal forms from the Northeast, Chhattisgarh, Odisha, and beyond. Each is tied to specific festivals, rituals, harvests, or life events.

Folk and tribal music programmes on audio platforms serve a dual function: preservation and discovery. Columbia University’s music research guides document the enormous archival value of recorded Indian folk music, noting digitisation efforts that now make it possible to access gramophone recordings cutting across genres like Hindustani classical, Carnatic, theatre, early cinema, and folk. On modern platforms, this translates into a growing catalogue of regional folk content. Streaming apps like JioSaavn and Gaana use geo-location data to actively recommend regional folk music to listeners based on where they are, making discovery hyper-localised and culturally relevant. Tribal music, while more niche, is increasingly finding digital homes through initiatives by cultural organisations and public radio stations like All India Radio.

Film music programmes 🔗

Film music – or filmi music – is the undisputed king of Indian audio content. According to Wikipedia’s comprehensive overview of Indian music, film songs (filmi) constitute 72% of music sales in India, a dominance that has persisted for decades. This isn’t hard to explain: Indian cinema has always been a musical medium. Hindi film songs have been a feature of Indian cinema since the very first sound film, Alam Ara (1931), and by 1934 were already being broadcast on radio – making film music and audio broadcasting essentially co-evolutionary.

Film music programmes on audio platforms come in multiple sub-formats. Countdown shows – such as “Top 10 Hits” – rank the week’s most streamed songs and build listener anticipation. Dedications and request programmes allow listeners to personalise their experience by dedicating songs to loved ones, a format that made radio deeply interactive long before social media existed. Retro and classic film music programmes serve an older demographic, while new release showcases cater to fans tracking fresh Bollywood and regional film drops. According to the IMI Digital Music Study 2023, the top genres in India remain firmly Bollywood-centric – with Bollywood Modern (50.5%), Bollywood New Age (44.1%), and Bollywood Classic (43.5%) dominating listener shares. The breadth of film music is its biggest strength: a single Bollywood soundtrack can incorporate classical, folk, Western pop, and hip-hop elements – making it a genre that naturally subsumes all the others.

Western music programmes 🔗

Western music – encompassing pop, rock, hip-hop, electronic dance music (EDM), jazz, and Western classical – has a significant and growing presence on Indian audio platforms, particularly among urban youth. Research from SonoSuite noted that three of the most streamed genres in India in 2020 were pop, filmi, and hip-hop, with K-Pop also placing India in the top 22% of Spotify’s global K-Pop listening markets. This reflects a generation of Indian listeners who are equally comfortable with Taylor Swift, BTS, and A.R. Rahman.

Western music programmes on Indian audio platforms typically take a genre-specific approach. Dedicated playlists for pop hits, classic rock, EDM, and hip-hop are standard offerings on Spotify and Apple Music. According to an independent analysis of Western music availability on Indian platforms, Spotify and Apple Music lead in catalogue coverage of critically acclaimed Western albums, while homegrown platforms like JioSaavn are closing the gap. RJs hosting Western music segments on FM radio often communicate bilingually – mixing English with local languages – to bridge cultural contexts and make international music feel accessible and relatable to Indian listeners.

Why genre-based programming matters 🔗

The five formats discussed above aren’t just programming categories – they represent audience communities with distinct identities, histories, and emotional relationships with sound. A listener tuning into a classical raga programme at dawn is having a fundamentally different experience from someone streaming Bollywood dance hits at a wedding. Genre-based programming acknowledges this reality and serves each community on its own terms.

For audio platforms, genre-specific structuring also has practical value. Statista’s Digital Music Market data for India confirms that younger audiences are actively seeking personalised, genre-driven playlists and localised content – and that platforms that invest in this kind of curation are gaining the most ground. The integration of AI-based recommendation engines means that genre preferences are now being mapped at an individual level, making music programme formats smarter and more responsive than ever before.

India’s music streaming market is projected to keep growing rapidly, fuelled by rural internet expansion, smartphone penetration, and a young population that is both deeply rooted in regional traditions and globally connected. In this environment, all five music programme formats – classical, light, folk, film, and Western – will continue to find their audiences, each evolving to meet listeners where they are, on whatever platform they prefer.

What do you think? With streaming algorithms increasingly curating music based on individual listening history, do you think niche formats like classical and tribal folk music will gain more visibility – or will they always remain in the shadow of film music’s mass appeal? And as Indian artists continue to break into global charts, how do you see the boundary between “Western” and “Indian” music formats shifting in the years ahead?

References

1. https://www.grandviewresearch.com/industry-analysis/audio-streaming-market-report
2. https://www.musicbusinessworldwide.com/global-audio-streams-jumped-14-in-2024-to-4-8-trillion-as-pop-music-was-the-fastest-growing-genre-in-the-us/
3. https://www.grandviewresearch.com/industry-analysis/music-streaming-market
4. https://sonosuite.com/blog/music-streaming-trends-and-music-services-in-india-an-overview
5. https://www.kenresearch.com/industry-reports/india-music-streaming-market
6. https://musconv.com/blog/top-5-music-streaming/
7. https://business.leeds.ac.uk/research-ceric/dir-record/research-blog/2228/opportunities-and-challenges-of-platformisation-in-the-indian-music-streaming-economy
8. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indian_classical_music
9. https://www.sangeetsamvaad.com/
10. https://guides.library.columbia.edu/sasia-music/media
11. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Music_of_India
12. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hindi_film_music
13. https://www.bwmarketingworld.com/article/69-indians-tune-into-music-livestreams-report-530095
14. https://shijith.com/blog/music-streaming-india/
15. https://www.statista.com/outlook/amo/media/music-radio-podcasts/digital-music/india