Stories, careers and news from India’s independent creative economy.
India's vinyl culture is small, uneven and increasingly visible. For artists and labels, it offers a lesson in intentional releases—not a replacement for streaming.
NOV 13, 2026 · 7 MIN READ
Tamil, Malayalam, Punjabi, Bengali and Assamese artists are not crossing over by becoming less local. They are travelling because their language, community and sound give listeners something distinct to find.
No family in the industry, no label contacts, no one to introduce you around. Here's what actually works when you're starting a music career in India from zero — with real examples of artists who did exactly that.
A practical, scam-aware guide for independent Indian artists: build a press kit, pitch the right editors, use Spotify for Artists properly, and turn coverage into a longer audience relationship.
Josh Brar was a kid tagging along to his father's recording sessions, watching him dub vocals with no idea he was watching his own future. Raj Brar, a Punjabi music mainstay, died in 2016 — and eight years later, Josh's debut single was a direct tribute to him. It's since crossed 180 million Spotify streams on its own. This is how a son built a career out of continuing a conversation his father never got to finish.
Rishi Roy began by making personal songs from the edges of the room. An early ₹1,500 distribution gamble, the lasting pull of Agle Janam, and a shared musical language with Dabzee helped turn that private instinct into an independent career.
Vibhu Singh was a formally trained drummer with no access to his kit when lockdown hit — so he opened FL Studio instead. What came out was Kalbaisakhi: chaotic, South Asian-rooted electronic music that's since crossed a million streams, drawn support from the UK's Daytimers collective, and taken him from a Delhi college band to a DJ boot camp in London under two of the scene's own tastemakers.
Curated dispatches on festival commissions, day rates, and verified credits across India.