The FICCI EY 2026 Report is out and it offers detailed insights into the trends that shaped 2025 across film, exhibition, OTT, music, television, print and live events. In this article, we focus on the observations and data shared in the report on music and streaming.
The music section of the report began with the information that revenues earned by music labels, from licensing and other income, increased by 10% and reached a staggering Rs. 59 billion in 2025. As the digital era continues, 58% of total music segment revenues came from digital licensing. The report explained digital licensing as “revenues earned from music streaming platforms, YouTube, social media platforms and from telecom operators, as digital consumption became the preferred mode of consumption”.
Other forms of licensing constituted 27%, which is music labels’ share of performance and publishing rights, sync, physical sales and exports. 15% was from miscellaneous sources, “as labels invested in live events, artist management and branded content”.
Streaming apps are an indispensable part of our lives now. According to the report, music streaming reached an audience of approximately 178 million who heard 5.8 trillion streams during the year, a 15% growth over 2024. Out of these 178 million people, the paid subscriber base reached the 14 million mark. The report stated, “This is a 37% growth over 2024, on the back of significant efforts by the music platforms to disincentivize free music consumption”.
The report then revealed that 96% of smartphone users listened to music, out of which 77% listened to music on legal digtial platforms. Of these 77% of users, 42% were free music streaming customers while 58% had paid for music streaming (including bundles).
The report then lists data for the number one songs, artists etc. of the year. At this juncture, the report revealed fascinating information - Hanuman Chalisa streams in 2025 were 1.5x of the year’s biggest film hit, that is, the title song of Saiyaara! Also, there is a 35% spike in Hanuman Chalisa streams on Tuesdays.
The top 5 artists, according to the report, are Ravichander, Arijit Singh, Faheem Abdullah, Jubin Nautiyal and Shreya Ghoshal. Yet, older songs are largely preferred. The report stated that more than 40% of the top 50 songs were from Hindi films released before 2020. Meanwhile, more than 50% of the top 50 albums were film music albums released before 2020 (across languages).
According to the report, Affluent India preferred to listen to Pop while Aspirational India endorsed evergreen classics. A whopping 57% of all music that was consumed was film-based. It's a huge number, but it is also down from 65% in 2023. Lastly, 59% of music was consumed in Hindi (down from 64% in 2024), followed by Punjabi at 9%, Tamil at 7% and Telugu at 6%.
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