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A court in India has ordered internet service providers to block access to 20 sites that were used to illegally download audio and video streams in India from platforms like YouTube, the IFPI says.
The civil ruling, published in the High Court of Delhi on Jan. 12, was the first such action in India to tackle the practice of stream-ripping, one of the country’s most rampant forms of piracy. The 20 blocked sites collectively received nearly half a billion visits last year from users based in India, according to the IFPI, which coordinated the action with the Indian Music Industry (IMI) on behalf of Sony Music India, Universal Music India and Warner Music India.
The labels told the court that the “rogue websites” were providing services in which copyrighted content on various platforms, primarily YouTube, could be downloaded in mp3 or mp4 format by copying the link in the space provided in the websites. Because the details of the websites’ real administrators are masked, the plaintiffs’ lawyer argued it would be impossible for them to pursue the websites in separate proceedings regarding individual copyrighted content.
Justice C Hari Shankar, who wrote the order, directed India’s government to issue a notification calling upon the various Internet service providers to block access to the websites in India. (The court order reviewed by Billboard says there are 18 defendants, but IFPI says the decision targets 20 infringing websites and more than 50 urls.)
In India, websites are regularly blocked on the basis of copyright infringement using Section 69A of the Information and Technology Act 2000 (as amended in 2008), Information Technology Rules 2009 and civil procedure rules, the IFPI tells Billboard.
“We welcome this decision and the strong message it sends to operators of stream ripping sites, wherever they may be based, that we are prepared to take the appropriate action against them,” Frances Moore, IFPI’s chief executive, says in a press release.
“Given that it’s the first time a website blocking order has been granted against stream ripping websites, this precedent is an important step in the right direction for the Indian recorded music industry,” Blaise Fernandes, IMI’s president and CEO, says in the same release.
Digital music has been leading the way in the rapid growth of India’s music market, which booked $219 million in recorded music revenues in 2021, up 20.3% from 2020. Streaming, which grew by 22.5% in 2021, now represents 87% of total trade value in the 17th-largest music market, according to IFPI’s Global Market Report.
But the IFPI notes that a study last year found that India still has a rate of piracy more than twice that of most major music markets, with 73% of internet users using unlicensed or illegal methods to listen to music, compared to a global average of 30%. Intellectual property rights theft “is like a cancer,” Fernandes wrote in a 2020 op-ed. “You need both palliative care via social messaging, as well as chemotherapy via the Indian Penal Code or laws that keep up with the needs of India’s digital requirements.”
Beyond India, the recording industry has stepped up efforts to crack down on stream-ripping websites. Courts and authorities in Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Denmark, Ecuador, Indonesia, Italy, Malaysia, Peru, Russia and Spain have all issued decisions over the last few years ordering service providers to block customers’ access to such websites, the IFPI says.
U.S. music companies have also battled stream-rippers, who are often based outside the country. In a case brought by more than two dozen record labels, a U.S. magistrate judge in Alexandria, Va., recommended in December 2021 that the operator of two Russian stream-ripping sites, Tofig Kurbanov, pay $82.9 million in damages for circumventing YouTube’s anti-piracy measures and infringing copyrights of audio recordings.
Kurbanov’s piracy operation drew more than 300 million global users to the sites from October 2017 to September 2018 alone, the court said. (U.S. District Judge Claude Hilton accepted the $82.9 million recommendation last February. In March, Kurbanov told the court he would appeal the judgement.)
As the streaming market has grown globally, the IFPI has also helped coordinate court and police actions to shut down sites peddling fake streams in major recording markets like Brazil and Germany, which are artificially juicing the success of songs and albums.
In France, the fifth-largest music market, a study released this week by a French government organization found that one billion streams — or between 1% to 3% of all streams in the market — were fraudulent in 2021. The report, which analyzed data from Spotify, Deezer and Qobuz, notes that “the methods used by fraudsters are constantly evolving and improving,” and that “fraud seems to be getting easier and easier to commit.”
MUMBAI — In a post-pandemic year when Hindi films finally returned to the cinemas in full force, their soundtracks were expected to claim back some of the audience they lost to “non-film” releases on Indian music streaming services. That didn’t happen.
In 2022, Bollywood lost some of its clout to movies from south India at the box-office — such as the Oscar-tipped Telugu blockbuster RRR. And on the audio-streaming charts, regional language and independent music proved that the growth of the non-film segment over the last two years wasn’t just a passing fad.
The past 12 months have shown India’s music industry that a hit can come from just about anywhere, such as a TV series in Pakistan or a Punjabi rapper in Canada. Or even from a pathologist and part-time Hindi singer in Chandigarh like Aditya A., whose two-year-old song “Chaand Baaliyaan” went viral on Instagram Reels, reached No. 5 on Spotify for the year and landed him a deal with Sony Music India.
Billboard’s look at the most-played (and viewed) tracks of 2022 on Apple Music, Spotify and YouTube in India highlights the ways in which the country’s consumption patterns are evolving and how the nation, with its continent-like range of states and languages, is among the most dynamic music markets in the world.
International music’s share is shrinking
A sole English-language track, short format video sensation “Heat Waves” by Glass Animals, is on Spotify’s year-end top 10. None appear on Apple Music, on which “Heat Waves” was also the most-heard international song of 2022 (it’s in the top 15 on the platform). A year ago hits in non-Indian languages represented 40% of 2021’s top 10 tunes on both services. However, this doesn’t mean that listenership of international music is falling. As Spotify and Apple Music — global platforms whose early adopters were English-speaking users in large cities — expand their customer bases in India, consumption is increasing in absolute terms, even though the overall share of foreign tracks on the services is decreasing. Significantly, international hits account for nearly 30% of Spotify’s top 100 of 2022. Short format video fueled the streaming success of a majority of these songs, such as Ruth B.’s “Dandelions” from 2017 and Elley Duhé’s “Middle Of The Night” from 2020.
Bollywood isn’t as big as it used to be
Bollywood or Hindi film music’s share of overall listenership has been steadily falling over the last three years and this is reflected once again in 2022’s biggest hits. The percentage of Bollywood songs in Spotify’s year-end top 10 fell from 80% in 2020 to 30% this year, a proportion that includes two older tracks, “Raataan Lambiyan” and “Ranjha” from Shershaah, which were No. 1 and No. 2 for all of 2021. This time, the highest-ranked Hindi film hit is another ballad, “Kesariya” from Brahmastra, at No. 3. On Apple Music’s year-end top 10, the decline has been more gradual, from 50% in 2020 to 40% in 2021 and 30% in 2022, a share made up of the aforementioned “Ranjha” and “Kesariya” and “Doobey” from Gehraiyaan. Surprisingly, there’s not a single Bollywood smash in YouTube’s list of top 10 music videos, which only lists 2022 releases. There were two in 2020 and in 2021 when the No. 1 video of the year was “Lut Gaye” from the movie Mumbai Saga.
Regional language music rules YouTube
The consumption of music in Indian regional languages — songs in languages apart from Hindi, Urdu and English — has been increasing exponentially as internet penetration rises and streaming services gain users across the country’s smaller cities, towns and rural areas. Regional language music streamers’ first port of call is YouTube on which the 2022 top 10 includes tracks in Tamil (the official music and lyric videos of “Arabic Kuthu” from the film Beast), Haryanvi (“Kacha Badam”, a remake of a viral Bengali hit), Bhojpuri (“Le Le Aayi Coca Cola” and “Nathuyina”), Telugu (“Oo Antava Mawa Oo Oo Antava” from the movie Pushpa: The Rise) and Punjabi (“Pasoori” from the Pakistani version of music TV series Coke Studio). Notably, the three Hindi tracks that make up the rest of the chart — “Srivalli,” “Saami Saami” and “Oo Bolega Ya Oo Oo Bolega” — are dubbed versions of Telugu tunes from the soundtrack of Pushpa, an action drama that was also released in Kannada, Malayalam and Tamil.
Punjabi music has crossed over into the mainstream
Out of all of India’s regional languages, Punjabi music has the largest listenership, thanks partly to its similarity to Hindi. Over the last two decades, it’s become increasingly common for Hindi film songs to have Punjabi lyrics. Punjabi’s music popularity has even spread to parts of the country where it isn’t widely spoken. Evidence of this is seen on Apple Music’s top 10 for 2022 on which Punjabi hits comprise the top eight. Five of them feature Canadian hip-hop artist A. P. Dhillon whose breakthrough smash “Brown Munde” was No. 1 for 2021 and whose “Excuses” was No. 1 all this year. “Excuses” tops Spotify’s list too. But the Punjabi music party is not limited to one act. “No Love” by Canadian rapper and singer Shubh is No. 4 on Spotify and “Bijlee Bijlee” by pop singer and actor Harrdy Sandhu is No. 7 on Apple Music.
“Pasoori” proves a cross-border sensation
Strained relations between India and Pakistan have led to a ban on Indian films in Pakistan and a similar restriction on the hiring of Pakistani actors and singers in India. But when it comes to the charts, both nations love thy neighbor. The only hit to feature across the year-end top 10s of Spotify, Apple Music and YouTube is “Pasoori” by singer-composer Ali Sethi, vocalist Shae Gill and producer Zulfiqar ‘Xulfi’ Jabbar Khan. The song, created for the fourteenth season of Coke Studio Pakistan. “Pasoori,” was the third highest streamed track on Indian streaming platform Wynk Music after “Kesariya” and “Arabic Kuthu.” It was also the most-played tune on Amazon Music in India, which is currently available only to subscribers of its Prime service. Conversely, Indian hip-hop stars A. P. Dhillon, Shubh and King feature in the top 10 of 2022 on Spotify in Pakistan.
Top 10 Songs of 2022 on Spotify in India
1. “Excuses”, A. P. Dhillon, Gurinder Gill and Intense, Run-Up Records
2. “Pasoori” (from Coke Studio Pakistan 14), Shae Gill and Ali Sethi, Giraffe Pakistan
3. “Kesariya” (from Brahmastra), Pritam, Arijit Singh and Amitabh Bhattacharya, Sony Music
4. “No Love,” Shubh
5. “Chaand Baaliyan,” Aditya A., Sony Music
6. “Raataan Lambiyan” (from Shershaah), Tanishk Bagchi, Jubin Nautiyal and Asees Kaur, Sony Music
7. “Heat Waves,” Glass Animals, Polydor
8. “Tu Aake Dekhle,” King, Kingsclan Records
9. “Arabic Kuthu – Halamithi Habibo” (from Beast), Anirudh Ravichander, Jonita Gandhi and Sivakarthikeyan, Sun Pictures
10. “Ranjha” (from Shershaah), Jasleen Royal and B. Praak, Sony Music
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Top 10 Songs of 2022 on Apple Music in India
1. “Excuses,” A. P. Dhillon, Gurinder Gill and Intense, Run-Up Records
2. “Desires,” A. P. Dhillon and Gurinder Gill, Run-Up Records
3. “Pasoori” (from Coke Studio Pakistan 14), Shae Gill and Ali Sethi, Giraffe Pakistan
4. “Insane,” A. P. Dhillon, Shinda Kahlon, Gurinder Gill and Gminxr, Run-Up Records
5. “Ranjha” (from Shershaah), Jasleen Royal and B. Praak, Sony Music
6. “Spaceship,” A. P. Dhillon, Shinda Kahlon and Gminxr, Run-Up Records
7. “Bijlee Bijlee,” Harrdy Sandhu, B. Praak and Jaani, Desi Melodies/Universal Music
8. “Tere Te,” A. P. Dhillon and Gurinder Gill, Run-Up Records
9. “Kesariya” (from Brahmastra), Pritam, Arijit Singh and Amitabh Bhattacharya, Sony Music
10. “Doobey” (from Gehraiyaan), OAFF, Savera, Lothika and Kausar Munir, Sony Music
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Top 10 Music Videos of 2022 on YouTube in India
1. “Srivalli” (from Pushpa: The Rise), Devi Sri Prasad, Javed Ali and Raqueeb Alam, T-Series
2. “Arabic Kuthu – Halamithi Habibo – Lyric Video” (from Beast), Anirudh Ravichander, Jonita Gandhi and Sivakarthikeyan, Sun Pictures
3. “Saami Saami” (from Pushpa: The Rise), Devi Sri Prasad, Sunidhi Chauhan and Raqueeb Alam, T-Series
4. “Kacha Badam,” Bhuban Badyakar and Amit Dhull, Bajewala Records
5. “Le Le Aayi Coca Cola,” Khesari Lal Yadav, Shilpi Raj, Prakash Barud and Sarvind Malhar, Gannayak Films
6. “Oo Bolega Ya Oo Oo Bolega” (from Pushpa: The Rise), Devi Sri Prasad, Kanika Kapoor and Raqueeb Alam, T-Series
7. “Oo Antava Mawa Oo Oo Antava” (from Pushpa: The Rise), Devi Sri Prasad, Indravathi Chauhan and Chandrabose, Aditya Music
8. “Pasoori” (from Coke Studio Pakistan 14), Shae Gill and Ali Sethi, Giraffe Pakistan
9. “Arabic Kuthu – Halamithi Habibo” (from Beast), Anirudh Ravichander, Jonita Gandhi and Sivakarthikeyan, Sun Pictures
10. “Nathuyina,” Khesari Lal Yadav, Priyanka Singh, Krishna Bedardi, Laxmikant-Pyarelal and Majrooh Sultanpuri, Saregama