Telugu music takes centre stage as Spotify hosts a masterclass in Hyderabad

Spotify hosted a masterclass for the artist community in Hyderabad to talk about how to make the most of Spotify for growth

Hyderabad: With a blend of traditional elements and contemporary sounds, Telugu music has been raising the bar, reaching listeners across age groups, cultural backgrounds, and geographies. Given the importance of the music culture emerging from the region, Spotify hosted a masterclass for the artist community in Hyderabad to talk about how to make the most of Spotify for growth and discovery.

Leading voices from the Telugu music industry, including artist Anurag Kulkarni, Aditya Music (label) and Harsha Chundru, co-founder of the marketing agency Walls and Trends, were at the event to share their insights on the Telugu music scene.

Artistes, artiste managers, labels, and aggregators had the opportunity to learn about how they can maximise their growth on Spotify through educational sessions on ‘Spotify For Artistes’, and panel discussions on the trends in the Telugu music industry, making music, and the relevance of audio streaming.

“The growth and recognition that Telugu music is receiving, both nationally and globally, is a testament to the immense talent in the region. Telugu music has always had a long history of crossover hits. Through masterclasses like this, we want to help artistes grow and build their fandoms around their own music. We look forward to even more innovation coming from the vibrant Telugu music scene,” said Rahul Balyan, Head of Music, Spotify India.

Earlier this year, ‘Naatu Naatu’ from ‘RRR’ put Telugu music on the global map, winning an Oscar for Best Original Song. Today, the song sits at over 58 crore streams on Spotify.

According to 2022 Spotify Wrapped data, Sid Sriram was the 10th most streamed artiste on the platform in India – with over 12 crore monthly listeners. Spotify’s flagship Telugu playlist, Hot Hits Telugu, is a one-stop destination for listeners to discover the best and biggest hits in the language, and at over 300k likes today.