The Indian Music Charts Podcast Amit Gurbaxani and Akhila Shankar

In a testament to her current status as the biggest pop star in the world, Taylor Swift's new single "Fortnight" has debuted higher than any other international track has in India so far this year. On this week's episode, we talk about the superfandom she enjoys on our shores, how she has managed to garner such a large following, and which other foreign acts come close to matching it. As always, we look at key movements on the Spotify Weekly Top Songs India chart, this time for the survey published on April 26, 2024.

Bollywood music is back and sitting comfortably in its old spot at the top of the charts. But this year's Hindi film hits exhibit that little has changed in terms of its sound. The segment remains dominated by remixes of recent pop hits, recreations of older smashes, "inspired" tunes and deja vu-evoking power ballads. In this episode, we examine why the film industry is so averse to taking risks, and how true evolution is always the result of constant innovation. As always, we look at the key movements on the Spotify Weekly Top Songs India chart, this time for the survey dated March 28, 2024.

With Sanju Rathod's "Gulabi Sadi" scoring this week's highest new entry, we interview Vishnu Iyer, A&R Manager, Artist Services & Development at Believe India, which has been working the track, about why the Marathi pop smash has managed to cross over into the national chart. We discuss the characteristics of the regional language's music industry, and how Rathod capitalised on the success of his breakthrough smash "Nauvari" to push his new release. As always, we look at key movements on the Spotify Weekly Top Songs India chart, this time for the survey dated March 21, 2024.

Even in this singles era, albums remain important for both artists and labels. To grab the attention full-length releases need, musicians and their teams have been devising innovative marketing strategies. In this episode, we discuss some recent campaigns, the best practices for upcoming acts and the pros and cons of investing in an album. As always, we look at key movements on the Spotify Weekly Top Songs India chart, this time for the survey dated March 14, 2024.

With the Indian music industry moving to adopt the term 'I-Pop' in place of 'non-film' to denote a certain kind of Indian popular music, we look at how such new genre names come to be and what it will take for the term to stick. As always, we look at key movements on the Spotify Weekly Top Songs India chart, this time for the survey dated March 7, 2024.

The Tamil music industry is even more dominated by film soundtracks than its Hindi counterpart. That's slowly but surely changing with the surprise success of hits like "Katchi Sera" by Sai Abhyankkar, which has zoomed into the top ten in just its second week on the chart. On this episode, our guest Magesh R., the creative head at Think Music and the A&R lead at Think Music Indie, which released the track, talks to us about the digital marketing strategy for "Katchi Sera" and explains how it's achieved what few non-film Tamil tunes have done before. As always, we look at key movements on the Spotify Weekly Top Songs India chart, this time for the survey published on February 16, 2024.