Chandigarh, February 9, 2023:(Punjabi Teshan) For a while now, Punjabi music has been a global phenomenon, cutting through linguistic barriers and finding its way to not just the diaspora, but also to international listeners. Given the importance of the music culture emerging from Punjab, Spotify hosted a masterclass for the entire artist community in Chandigarh to talk about how to make the most of Spotify for growth. Leading voices from the Punjabi music industry, including artists such as Jasmine Sandlas and Jazzy B, lyricist, composer and producer Bunty Bains, and Speed Records founder and director Satvinder Singh Kohli, among others were also at the event to share their perspective on the Punjabi music industry.
Spotify masterclass
Artists, artist managers, labels, and aggregators had the opportunity to learn about how they can maximise their growth on Spotify through educational sessions on the Spotify For Artists, and panel discussions on the trends in the Punjabi music industry, making music, and the relevance of audio streaming.
In India, it is one of the most popular music languages, with Punjabi artists across pop and hip-hop topping charts regularly. In 2022, Spotify Wrapped data saw ‘Excuses’ by AP Dhillon, Intense, and Gurinder Gill emerge as the most streamed song on Spotify in India – with over 19 crore streams, and the late Sidhu Moose Wala’s ‘Moosetape’ the most-streamed album over the year, and four out of the 10 most streamed songs in India were in Punjabi.
“When we look at music streaming, a majority of the listening for Punjabi music is taking place on Spotify, which shows how we’ve been able to curate the right kind of artists and playlists for our listeners not just in India, but across the world. We want to bring more artists from Punjab onto our platform enabling them to reach a wider audience in India, and across our global markets. The masterclass and industry expert sessions in Chandigarh bring us a step closer to that goal” said Rahul Balyan, Head of Music, Spotify India.
Spotify masterclass
Spotify’s flagship Punjabi playlist, Punjabi 101, has become a go-to for listeners to discover the best and biggest hits in the language, and at over 850,000 likes today, it is one of the most popular playlists on Spotify in India.
While the majority of streams for Punjabi music on Spotify come from India, the language also continues to grow in popularity around the world, particularly in diaspora countries, including Canada, the UK, USA, and more.