India’s Paid Music Subscribers Could Hit 30 Million by 2028

India‘s paid music streaming subscriber base could grow to between 28 million and 30 million by 2028, up from an estimated 14 million as of December 2025, according to the EY and the Indian Music Industry (IMI) “How India Listens, Streams and Pays for Music” report, released Friday in Mumbai.

The report draws on a poll of upward of 15,000 smartphone owners fielded in March and April, supplemented by psychometric research covering more than 2,200 consumers and discussions with industry executives.

The numbers underline a familiar paradox for the Indian music business. Some 96% of smartphone owners consume music, and 80% of them listen for more than an hour a day. Yet just 38% have ever handed over money for music streaming, bundled subscriptions included, versus 86% who have paid for video streaming services at some point. Dedicated digital service providers (DSPs) remain the preferred destination for structured listening, used by 60% of respondents, while 32% listened to music on YouTube – though YouTube remains the single largest platform for music discovery, driven largely by short-form video.

The report frames the shortfall as a legacy of India’s leap from physical formats straight to free, ad-supported streaming. In his foreword to the report, Blaise Fernandes, CEO of IMI, wrote that a “non-paid for music ecosystem eventually negatively impacts the creators and copyright owners,” arguing that record labels, DSPs and creators need to work together toward a tiered paid model. The report notes that India’s 14 million paid subscribers trail Brazil’s more than 30 million and the United States’ 106 million, and that China – whose music industry ranked behind India’s as recently as 2015 – has built a paid subscriber base of more than 171 million, propelling it to the No. 2 spot globally in streaming revenue.

Commenting on the report in a statement, Fernandes said, “Art requires more than just inspiration; it requires economic oxygen. To take Indian music global and discover our next generation of talent, we must transition from being a passive consumer market into active patron’s market. Paying for an audio digital subscription is a direct investment by the fan to show support to their favorite performers and also helps in preserving and exporting our rich cultural heritage.”

Vikram Mehra, chair of IMI, pointed to the survey as validation of a shift already underway among consumers. “EY-IMI’s consumer study validates our belief that Indian consumer is ready to pay for quality,” Mehra said. “We look forward to working with our partners, the DSPs, in expanding the audio paid services ecosystem in India. The eventual goal is to get India into the top 5 music market of the world.”

Ashish Pherwani, partner and leader of the media & entertainment Sector at EY India, cast the findings as an opening rather than a setback. “Music remains one of India’s most consumed forms of digital entertainment,” Pherwani said. “The report highlights an opportunity for the industry to further strengthen subscription adoption through improved consumer awareness, differentiated offerings and innovation that responds to evolving listener preferences.”

Composer, singer and performer Badshah, who also contributed a foreword, framed the stakes in cultural terms, writing that “the future of music will be shaped not just by how widely it is heard, but by how deeply it is valued.”

The report’s psychometric research, conducted by MindLink, splits smartphone owners into three cohorts: Payers, who hold active paid subscriptions; Fence-sitters, who use free versions but would pay if they had no other choice; and Never-payers, who rely on YouTube and do not use paid music apps. Among Never-payers, 49% said music streaming isn’t worth paying for and 36% said it feels wrong to pay for digital products when free options exist – a sentiment also shared by 29% of Fence-sitters and 9% of Payers. Fence-sitters emerged as the likelier conversion target: 27% said paying is worthwhile once they use a service regularly, and 34% cited reliability as worth paying for. Across all three cohorts, only 7% said bundling alone would be enough to get them to value and adopt a new paid product, and 38% of Fence-sitters and 33% of Never-payers said they would rather own a collection of songs outright than subscribe to one.

Several structural factors underpin the industry’s optimism about future growth. India’s smartphone base, at 584 million in 2025, could reach 735 million by 2030, according to the report, while the country’s real GDP grew 6.5% in 2025 and is projected to make India the world’s third-largest economy by 2030. The report also points to India’s expanding vehicle base – more than 400 million registered vehicles as of 2025, up from 326 million in 2020 – and its young population, with 65% of Indians under age 35, as durable drivers of music consumption. Paid subscriptions grew 37% in 2025 alone, per the report, as streamers pushed premium features and introduced more friction into free products; subscription revenues are projected to rise from roughly INR10 billion (about $111 million) in 2025 to INR22 billion (about $244 million) by 2028. Industry CEOs interviewed for the report put the market’s long-term ceiling at 50 million to 75 million paid subscriptions.

Among those who do pay, avoiding ads was the most cited reason (44%), followed by the ability to play songs in any order (38%) and higher audio quality (36%). Among those who don’t, 42% said YouTube already gives them all the music they need for free, while 33% cited price and 30% said they simply don’t need premium features. The report’s recommendations for closing the gap include building context-aware listening features tied to activity or mood, deepening bundling with telecom, banking and e-commerce platforms, and developing multi-purpose apps that connect music with live events, karaoke and creator content – alongside continued enforcement action against piracy.