MUMBAI: India's No.1 music streaming app, Gaana’s annual report on the country’s music consumption trends registered an unprecedented demand for regional music. This genre accounted for more than 1 Bn music streams in Dec 2019, registering an incredible (8X) growth in the past 2.5 years - making regional music the most vibrant and potent genre in the country’s audio OTT market.

 Currently, regional music accounts for more than 35% OTT music consumption, with more than half of all users of regional music coming from smaller cities. Given the rising popularity of Punjabi, Hindi, Tamil, Telugu and Malayalam music across the country, the country’s audio OTT market is expected to grow to 600 million users in the next 3 years, buoyed by the surging interest in regional music consumption. Gaana Originals, Gaana’s initiative to promote regional non-film music also saw a sharp jump and now contributes more than 100 MN streams per month. The most notable song amongst the Gaana Originals was Lehanga by Jas Manak that topped all charts in 2019 and crossed 115 Mn streams on Gaana.

Commenting on the year gone by, Gaana CEO Prashan Agarwal said: “2019 was a landmark year for music lovers, artists and the industry in more ways than one. The meteoric rise in regional music consumption across the nation marks one of the biggest cultural shifts in perception of music in the past decade. As established and emerging musical artists across the country realized the growing importance of music streaming apps to reach their fans at scale in their own language, our primarily young music streaming population are embracing their respective cultures and are ‘going back to their roots’. It's no longer ‘uncool’ to groove to music from your own region or culture, it's rather the ‘in’ thing to have a playlist featuring music in multiple languages. At Gaana, we are humbled to be at the centre of this vibrant blend of cultures, powering these musical connections that celebrate our country’s unity and diversity.”

 Besides the rising interest in regional music, the most popular music artists of 2019 were Tanishk Bagchi, Arijit Singh, and Neha Kakkar for most of the northern and western states, whereas Punjab and Haryana had regional artists like Jas Manak, Diljit Dosanjh, Guru Randhawa, Sukh-E Muzical Doctorz and B Praak winning hearts. Down South, Telangana favored Devi Sri Prasad, Sid Sriram, and S. P. Balasubrahmanyam; Tamil Nadu preferred A. R. Rahman, Anirudh Ravichander and Tamizha while Kerala was grooving to A. R. Rahman, Arijit Singh, and Shreya Ghoshal. In terms of music preferences, Tanishq Bagchi’s Tere Bin, DSP’s Ek Baar, A.R Rehman’s Thalli Pogathey, Guru Randhawa’s Ishare Tere, Arijit Singh’s Ve Maahi and Neha Kakkar’s Aankh Marey were the most popular hits across the country.