Airtel launches Wynk Studio to help artists monetise their music across platforms

Telecom operator Bharti Airtel's music streaming app Wynk Music on Thursday launched a music distribution ecosystem for independent artists based in India and overseas, called Wynk Studio.  

"The studio will enable artists to launch their music and will also partner them in monetising their music on a host of platforms and will be a part of Airtel's digital products portfolio which includes Wynk, Airtel Xstream, Airtel Ads, Airtel IQ among others," the telecom major said in a statement. 

The studio also plans to launch 5,000 independent artists on the platform in the next one year. This will bring forward unknown talent stymied by music industry’s three most pressing problems — Discovery, Monetisation and Analytics, which together determine the difference between success and failure in the Indian music industry. Wynk also said, it has set aside ₹100 crore to support and facilitate the identification of local talent on the app. 

Wynk Studio already has over 100 artists on the platform from India, Singapore and the United States with some such as Nishad Patki from Pune, a professor leaving their job to pursue their passion for music full time. Mumbai-based Prateek Gandhi (34 million streams) Gagan Baderiya from Bengaluru (17 million streams) and Harsha Prawin from Hyderabad (20 million streams) and small-town sensations Ajay Nagarkoti from Haldwani and D-Shaw from Vapi are some of the artists doing over a million streams each.  

Airtel said that on an average, Indians listen to music for 21 hours per week as against the global average of 18 hours. Further, nearly 30% of the top songs in India currently across all music platforms are by independent musicians, and such artists are “set to propel the industry’s development by 50%, from about 2,000 crore at the moment to 3,000 crore by 2025”.  

Adarsh Nair, CEO, Airtel Digital, “The creator economy for music is at a nascent stage but poised to grow significantly. With Wynk Studio, we are building a platform that allows aspiring musicians to pursue their passion and earn income at the same time.” 

According to the telecom major, Wynk Studio plans to help an artist by enabling them to launch their music on the Wynk music app and also other music platforms. Music listeners can save, download and even follow their favourite artists on the Wynk app. Secondly, it can help emerging artists to achieve record streams in competitive timelines through Airtel’s distribution capabilities. This way, artists could ensure a consistent earning. And finally, using Airtel’s data science capabilities, artists can now build music that is enjoyed by their followers, helping them to create commercially viable music.  

On Monday, the telco reported a 22.2% increase in quarterly revenue, boosted by subscriber additions, and an over five-fold rise in its consolidated profit to ₹1,607 crore for the first quarter ended June 30. Last week, it won the 5G spectrum worth $5.4 billion in the country's $19 billion auction. The government aims to begin the rollout of 5G, which can provide data speeds about 10 times faster than 4G by October this year.