Beyond the Box Office: Why India's content studios are betting big on music IP?

For much of Bollywood's history, music existed to sell films. Soundtracks built anticipation months before release, dominated radio airwaves and remained part of popular culture long after audiences left cinemas. While songs became inseparable from a film's identity, the business of monetising them largely belonged to music labels.

That equation is changing. Within days of each other, two of India's biggest production houses unveiled music ventures of their own. Excel Entertainment launched Excel Music, with Universal Music Group (UMG) joining as a strategic shareholder and global marketing and distribution partner. Yash Raj Films (YRF), meanwhile, introduced Raah Records, a label and artist incubator focused on nurturing independent musicians beyond film soundtracks.

The announcements reflect more than business diversification. They signal a broader shift in how India's entertainment industry is creating, owning and monetising intellectual property.

The two studios, however, are pursuing different strategies. Excel Music will debut with the soundtrack of Mirzapur: The Movie before expanding beyond the studio's own productions. Raah Records is positioning itself as an artist incubator rather than merely a film soundtrack label. While Excel is building a catalogue around films, YRF is building a pipeline around artists. Different approaches, but the same objective: creating intellectual property that can be monetised across multiple platforms over the long term.

Historically, the industry operated in silos, with studios producing films, music companies owning soundtracks, and separate players handling talent, licensing and merchandising. That structure is beginning to dissolve. Earlier this year, Sony Music made a strategic investment in Maddock Films, while Universal deepened its partnership with Excel Entertainment. 

New competitive battleground

India is among the world's fastest-growing recorded music markets, according to the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI), with digital platforms accounting for the overwhelming majority of industry revenues.

Industry estimates value India's recorded music business at more than ₹3,000 crore, while the broader media and entertainment industry is estimated at nearly ₹2.5 lakh crore. Yet India's per-capita spending on music remains among the lowest globally, suggesting significant headroom for growth.

As global music companies move closer to film studios and studios expand into music, ownership of intellectual property is becoming the new competitive battleground.

For Excel Entertainment, the move builds on a legacy in which music has been central to films such as Dil Chahta Hai, Rock On!! and Gully Boy. Founders Ritesh Sidhwani and Farhan Akhtar described Excel Music as a "natural extension" of the company's creative journey that would enable collaborations with artists across genres.

YRF is taking a different route. CEO Akshaye Widhani called Raah Records "an important strategic expansion" designed around long-term artist development rather than simply distributing film music, arguing that independent musicians increasingly need sustained creative partnerships alongside marketing and distribution.

Together, these moves reverse the industry's traditional expansion model. While companies such as T-Series, Saregama, Tips and Sony Music India diversified from music into films, production houses are now entering music to own and monetise intellectual property rather than licensing it to external labels.

Once viewed primarily as a promotional tool for films, songs today have an independent commercial life across streaming platforms, YouTube, short-video apps, social media, gaming and advertising. Audiences increasingly discover music outside cinema, allowing successful tracks to generate revenue long after a film's theatrical and streaming runs.

Pep Figueiredo, COO of PTPL India and former SonyLIV executive, believes the shift is being driven as much by changing audience behaviour as by business strategy. "Music is no longer experienced purely as an audio product; it has become a predominantly visual medium," he says. "Smart studios are building scalable intellectual property portfolios to enhance enterprise value before monetising them. While traditional revenue streams such as global music rights and royalties will continue to underpin the business, gaming is poised to emerge as a significant new source of revenue."

"For film studios, that changes the strategic importance of music. Rather than licensing songs to third-party labels in exchange for upfront payments, owning a label enables producers to retain master recordings, publishing rights, streaming income, synchronisation licences, catalogue appreciation and future licensing opportunities," an industry insider noted.

The trend mirrors global entertainment, where companies such as Disney and South Korea's HYBE have built businesses around extending intellectual property across streaming, consumer products, live events, gaming and fan communities, Figueiredo noted.

Gaurav Chanana, founder of Lucifer Circus, which operates both a production house and a music label, sees this as a fundamental reordering of creative hierarchies. “Digital has democratized music distribution, making it easy for anyone to launch a label. But while starting a label is simple, building a sustainable business isn't. Studios now create and distribute their own music, and when a hit song can out-earn the film itself, owning the music IP becomes a strategic advantage,” 

“In a world of endless content and shrinking attention spans, music remains unmatched in its ability to cut through the noise. That's why music IP is more valuable than ever and live music is booming. The next wave of monetisation won't come from ownership—it will come from experiences.”