Regional music goes global: Spotify report highlights surge in Telugu, Haryanvi, Tamil and more

Regional-language music is finding a bigger audience on streaming platforms, with Spotify’s India report highlighting sharp growth for Telugu, Marathi, Bengali, Malayalam and Tamil music. Haryanvi has also emerged as a breakout language, with streams increasing nearly sevenfold between February 2023 and February 2026.

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At the same time, Indian music is travelling beyond the country, with more than 40% of royalties earned by Indian artists in 2025 coming from listeners overseas. 

Regional languages find a larger audience

Spotify’s 2025 Loud & Clear report, its annual look at how artists earn from streaming and where India’s music economy is headed, shows strong growth across several Indian languages.

Globally, royalties generated by Telugu music increased by more than 120% year over year, followed by Marathi at nearly 50%, Bengali at nearly 40%, Malayalam at over 30%, Hindi at nearly 30% and Tamil at 20%.

Haryanvi has recorded an even sharper rise. Streams in the language increased nearly sevenfold between February 2023 and February 2026, making it one of Spotify’s fastest-growing languages.

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“Two years ago, artists performing in Haryanvi or Malayalam languages didn’t have the kind of reach they do today,” said Dhruvank Vaidya, Head of Music & Podcasts, Spotify India. He said the audience already existed, while Spotify built the infrastructure to “surface it, monetise it, and ensure artists earned from it.”

Spotify is also expanding its RADAR programme to Malayalam this year, following its Punjabi and Tamil editions.

Indian music is travelling globally

More than 40% of royalties earned by Indian artists in 2025 came from listeners outside India, showing the growing international reach of music created in the country. Listeners streamed Indian artists nearly 335 billion times, accounting for more than 20 billion hours of music.

Tamil music has produced notable global results. Anirudh Ravichander’s Coolie soundtrack crossed 100 million streams in 10 days and earned a Times Square billboard in New York. “Aasa Kooda” by Sai Abhyankkar and Sai Smriti reached 238 million streams, while Kerala-born rapper Hanumankind’s “Big Dawgs” hit 360 million streams and No.1 on a Spotify global chart.

Independent artists are breaking through

The report also found that 90% of tracks on Spotify’s Top 50 - India playlist in 2025 were by Indian artists. I-Pop, or Indian music released outside Bollywood soundtracks, accounted for half of Spotify’s 2025 year-end top 10 in India.

On Spotify’s 2025 Global Impact List, 11 of the top 15 most exported Indian songs came directly from artists outside film soundtracks. Meanwhile, local streams of Indian women artists grew 27% year over year in 2025, while international streams rose 7%.