The nominations for the 2025 Grammy Awards were announced last week, evoking celebration for some Indian artists and disappointment for others, including those on the charts. This year, it seemed like there were a record number of submissions by Indian acts, several of whom shared 'For Your Consideration' posts on social media and a few of whom even put out ads in US music trade publications. On this week's episode, we discuss why the Grammys, which are given out by an American institution, hold so much weight with musicians in India. As always, we look at key movements on the Spotify Weekly Top Songs India chart, this time for the survey published on November 8, 2024.

In May 2023, the first single from KSHMR’s concept album Karam ‘Haath Varti’ entered the charts, an EDM meets Hip-Hop track. In that week, it was the only track on the India charts that was from the EDM genre. This led us to a discussion on why EDM tends to draw more live audiences than it might on streaming. As we get into the last 2 months of the year we are seeing the typical peak in electronic music gigs with artists like Skrillex returning to India, Peggy Gou making her India debut. We couldn’t think of a better time to revisit this conversation.

Historically, the last quarter of the year tends to be the busiest for new album releases. Earlier, they were timed to capitalise on the festive season. These days, they're more likely to be the result of the culmination of a year full of singles being bundled into an album, or an artist tying a fresh full-length to an upcoming concert tour or festival appearances. Keeping this in mind, we thought it would be a great time to revisit our episode on single vs. album marketing strategies. This episode was originally recorded in March 2024. Enjoy the revisit! We will be back with a new episode soon!

Prateek Kuhad's "Co2" entering the chart marks the rare instance of an English-language track by an Indian artist generating enough streams to reach the top 200. On this week's episode, we discuss why such occurrences are so few and far between, how he managed to do it, and why tunes such as this hit represent a niche within a niche. As always, we look at key movements on the Spotify Weekly Top Songs India chart, this time for the survey published on October 4, 2024.

With Diljit Dosanjh's 2020 track "Born To Shine" reaching a new peak in the aftermath of his tour announcement, we turn our focus to the country's thriving live music scene to discuss the unprecedented scramble for tickets for shows by acts such as Coldplay and him. We also list out the international concerts with the highest attendance figures so far, and predict who we think might be visiting next. As always, we look at key movements on the Spotify Weekly Top Songs India chart, this time for the survey published on September 20, 2024.

The soundtrack to this year's highest-grossing Hindi film so far, horror comedy Stree 2 has accomplished what no other OST has in recent times: each of its four tracks has reached the top ten. In this episode, we speak to Neha Malhotra, assistant general manager - music marketing and audio monetisation at Saregama, about the strategies the label implemented to promote the movie's tunes and consequently, reach this rare milestone. As always, we look at key movements on the Spotify Weekly Top Songs India chart, this time for the survey published on September 6, 2024.

With "Big Dawgs" by rapper Hanumankind and producer Kalmi entering the charts in over a dozen countries, it's become one of the first Indian releases to cross over internationally. This week, we interview Rohan Venkatesh, the founder of management company Imaginary Frnds whose roster includes both HMK and Kalmi, to talk about the release strategy for the hip-hop smash and how multiple touch points across social media served as trigger points for the track to take off first in the US and then across the world. As always, we look at key movements on the Spotify Weekly Top Songs India chart, this time for the survey published on August 23, 2024

On this special episode that was recorded live at the All About Music conference in Mumbai on August 7, 2024, we interview a panel comprising singer and rapper Chaar Diwaari; the head of music and podcasts at Spotify India, Dhruvank Vaidya; artist manager and Swiftie Natasha Mahtani; and chief of business - live events at BookMyShow, Owen Roncon, to understand how fandom is built and monetised, from their distinct perspectives as artists, fans, managers, platforms and promoters. This time, instead of looking at the key movements on the Spotify Weekly Top Songs India survey, we begin the show with a few examples of how superfandom influences the charts.

Data mentioned at the start of the podcast can be viewed here: https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1-HgnKilaAg6meObBxEmFA8icjJ7AuKEfwvhYxbkVP68/edit?usp=sharing

Special shout out to Team All About Music: Ashish Jose, Chandni Soni, Kinselle Fernandes, Krishna, Anamika Sinha.