Major Labels Known for Bollywood Hits are Now Picking Up Indie Artists, But Will It Last?

There are at least two kinds of worlds that music inhabits inside Indian major label T-Series. One might have artists like Punjabi star Guru Randhawa teaming up with actor-turned-singer Kapil Sharma, delivering smoldering looks amidst snow-capped locales. The other would have composer-singer Tanishk’s lo-fi informed love song pushed out with a simple, understated lyric video.

While it’s a fact that a more visually compelling story can drive a song’s views up compared to an animated lyric video, what’s surprising is that a major label (and movie studio) would take a bet on the latter, especially for its biggest artists. But that subtler approach to releasing music is exactly what’s underway at T-Series, with animated videos coming up for songs by star singers like Gajendra Verma (who’s worked with producer Ravator on “Aa Bhi Jaa”) and Randhawa’s next single “Mountain Peak” too. Perhaps less might be more after all.

On the other end of the spectrum, the masala continues to be poured into songs featuring singers Jubin Nautiyal and Payal Dev, Tony Kakkar, Vishal Mishra (also a composer) and more. Perhaps a bit like playing the odds, T-Series is also set to release music from rap star Ikka (“Mehfil”) and pop-rock band Faridkot (featuring singer-composer Shilpa Rao on “Numaani”). It prompts the question of whether even the biggest labels are beginning to see the potential of previously non-mainstream artists, especially now that these acts are enjoying a large listenership on their own terms.

While Sony Music India famously took a bet on DIVINE, Naezy and Sez on the Beat for “Mere Gully Mein” and saw it catapult into the history books of Indian hip-hop, the major has always been compartmentalizing its approach with imprints or sub-labels such as Day One. It’s a similar route for Universal Music Group in India, who’ve launched VYRL specifically for mainstream pop music outside of film soundtracks. Given their global clout, Universal launched Mass Appeal India and Def Jam Recordings India to give each branch its own weight.

The other players, however, like Zee Music and Saregama, have been launching their verticals within the company’s existing catalog, pretty much keeping the lines between their grandiose mainstream productions and previously-indie artist’s releases a blurred one. That’s why you can see “Zee Music Originals” churn out releases by the likes of Shashaa Tirupati and desi bass music producer Paranox, as well as “Saregama Fresh” put out music by Bengaluru-based singer-composer Avishek Dasgupta featuring his prog band Winterchild.

It truly remains an indecipherable and unpredictable time when you’re trying to track major labels and how they’re currently sizing up bands and artists who are just now getting exposed to India’s mainstream pop-loving audiences. Being one among an assortment of mainstream acts – like, say, Faridkot and Ikka at T-Series – might just work to their advantage. After all, the labels have the biggest subscriber base awaiting each release, regardless of style, sound and name.

Whether these labels will have a sustained interest or are just content testing the waters is a question that might get answered only as we see more releases roll out.