Revenues at India’s Ideas Music rose 11% YoY in calendar Q3 amid ‘difficult business surroundings’

The slowdown in India’s music market has slowed income development at Mumbai-headquartered Ideas Music, however the distinguished label predicts sturdy momentum forward because it expects reside music and paid streaming proceed to develop within the South Asian market.

Ideas reported 11% year-over-year income development in Q2 of its fiscal 2026 (calendar Q3 2025), which ended on September 30, reaching INR ₹892 million, or USD $10.2 million on the common change price for the quarter.

That represents a slowdown for Ideas, which recorded 19.1% YoY income development in Q1 of fiscal 2026, and in the identical quarter a yr earlier, the corporate reported 32% YoY income development.

Ideas Chairman and Managing Director Kumar Taurani famous that regardless of a “difficult business surroundings,” the corporate’s income nonetheless grew round 15% YoY within the first half.

“Over the long run, we count on sturdy enterprise momentum, supported by sustained paid subscriber development, starting of advert income sharing from short-form content material platforms, and sturdy enlargement within the public efficiency phase,” Taurani mentioned in an announcement.

India has seen a slowdown within the development of its music market that’s surprisingly steep for a rustic recognized to have been among the many fastest-growing music markets in recent times.

Based on IFPI knowledge, recorded music revenues within the nation grew at an anemic 3% YoY tempo in 2024. The nation stays properly behind many different markets in paid subscription adoption, with simply 20 million of India’s 192 million music streaming subscribers paying for an account, or barely above 10%.

Ideas’ Working EBITDA for the quarter got here in at INR ₹678 million ($7.8 million), up 14% YoY. Working EBITDA margin expanded to 67.8%, from 59.5% a yr earlier.

After-tax revenue got here in at INR ₹532 million ($6.1 million), up 10% YoY, whereas the after-tax revenue margin stayed regular at 59.6%.

“Over the long run, we count on sturdy enterprise momentum, supported by sustained paid subscriber development, starting of advert income sharing from short-form content material platforms, and sturdy enlargement within the public efficiency phase.”

Kumar Taurani, Ideas Music

The corporate, which boasts a catalog of 34,000 “must-have hits,” together with some going again to its early days as a distinguished label for Bollywood film music, mentioned it launched 133 songs in the course of the quarter, of which 76 have been movie tracks and 57 have been non-film tracks. Ideas highlighted Telugu’s Vibe Undi as certainly one of its largest hits of the quarter.

Ideas mentioned its YouTube channels’ subscriber base grew to 134 million, up from 108 million in the identical quarter a yr earlier.

The corporate introduced a second dividend of INR ₹4 ($0.045) per share this fiscal yr, bringing the full divided payout to INR ₹1.023 billion ($11.7 million).

The corporate’s earnings numbers replicate a rising client urge for food for music in India – however slowing income development.

On the All About Music convention in Mumbai this previous summer time, IFPI CEO Victoria Oakley urged India’s music business to sort out the challenges that face it regardless of its “extraordinary potential” to drive the following wave of world music development.

Oakley pointed to a number of dangers threatening sustainable development, together with the misuse of generative AI, streaming fraud, and the overwhelming dominance of free, ad-supported streaming over paid subscriptions.

“These dangers are actual,” Oakley mentioned. “Music has value, and paying for it sustains the artists and cultures we love. The selections we make now will form the following decade of music.”

For its half, Ideas Music has been extending and increasing its partnerships with music majors internationally, together with a latest enlargement of its publishing partnership with Sony Music Publishing. The deal entails administration, synchronization, and expanded promotion of Ideas Music’s repertoire throughout international digital platforms.

Ideas additionally final yr prolonged its distribution take care of Warner Music India and ADA.

The corporate has additionally been increasing its enterprise by way of acquisitions, most just lately shopping for the entire music catalog of Studio Radha, which added greater than 4,000 Gujarati and Kutchi tracks to Ideas’ portfolio.