"India Set To Lead 5-7X Growth In Live Entertainment"-Sanjay Ahire Executive Director Percept Live

Sanjay Ahire, founder of Artistivity, brings over 25 years of transformative expertise across Media, Music, and Entertainment.

From Sony Music to Percept Pictures, his leadership has driven groundbreaking growth. Now steering Percept Live, he is shaping the future of festivals, concerts, and talent management with visionary strategies and unmatched industry insight.

In an exclusive interview for Loudest.in's Power People series, Sanjay Ahire shares insights into his remarkable journey and discusses the evolving live music business, along with exciting new developments on the horizon.

Here are edited excerpts:

Q1. Tell us about your journey so far?

With 25 years of experience in the M&E sector, my journey has been both dynamic and enriching. Post PGDM from IIM A'bad I started into M&E, taking on roles in various sectors like music, radio, feature films, events, television, and digital.

My tenure includes marketing roles at Sony Music and Radio Mirchi, movie marketing at Percept Pictures, Digital media & product development at Tangerine and consulting role at Ernst & Young, where I focused on strategy and revenue optimization for leading media clients.

Founding Artistivity, an artist discovery and booking platform, allowed me to merge entrepreneurial passion with media expertise, scaling it to 5000 verified artists and more than 2000 bookings across 30 cities. Each chapter in my career has honed my skills in business strategy, marketing, content curation and product development.

Q2. Congratulations on your new role as Executive Director at Percept Live. How do you balance your entrepreneurial spirit with the need to drive strategic growth in a large, established organization like Percept? What are some key leadership principles that guide you in both roles?

Balancing entrepreneurial spirit with strategic growth involves staying adaptable and fostering innovation within structured frameworks. At Percept Live, I leverage my entrepreneurial mindset to identify opportunities for sustainable growth while aligning with the organization's vision for creating cutting edge entertainment experience, scalability and impact. I believe in prioritizing 'customer delight', building and empowering the team and embracing a growth mindset.

Q3.Do you think this is an excellent time for brands to collaborate with music festivals? Have you observed the increasing trend?

Experiential marketing has always been at the forefront of consumer engagement. In the past few years, this approach has expanded beyond traditional brands to include a significant portion of the direct-to-consumer (D2C) ecosystem. With the rise of D2C brands, there is often no retail presence or physical interaction with the brand—whether it’s in sectors like Fintech, traditional music festivals, or other industries. This shift is opening up new opportunities, as engagement is no longer limited to physical interactions. It has evolved into a hybrid model where consumers discover exciting music properties, festivals, and interesting brands primarily through social media. From there, the journey transitions into physical interactions, such as sampling or participating in brand-led contests. Experiential marketing is now at the heart of this engagement.

Moreover, digital media has equipped brands with powerful tools to target and profile customers based on location, age group, preferences, and entertainment choices. Previously, achieving such finely tuned audience segmentation required significant effort. Now, brands can design tailored experiences for specific target groups, creating more meaningful and impactful consumer connections.

Q4.How did your experience at Sony Music shape your approach to content strategy and business development, particularly in the music and media sectors?

Yeah, working at Sony was truly a dream job. Mr. Vijay Singh, who was the CEO at the time, along with Sridhar, Sanujit, and all my colleagues like Rahul and Sahas, formed an incredible team. The network we built there was remarkable. It was also a period when cassette sales and music retail were still highly relevant, playing a key role in shaping promotion and marketing campaigns.

In many ways, it felt like running a media FMCG business. Success depended on the time it took to distribute products, the terms offered to distributors, and the age-old principle that in a physical environment, people tend to like songs they hear most often. Airplay was a crucial component of what music companies focused on. Distribution, engaging audiences, and interacting with creative talent—be it directors, writers, or actors—were all integral parts of the process.

One key lesson I learned during that time was the importance of truly following your product. Whether it was a single song, an album, or a movie, understanding the product's core target group and who would resonate most with it was essential. It was all about fine-tuning that definition—identifying who would love to listen to the song or watch the movie—and then scaling that understanding into actionable strategies.

Q5.How do you identify emerging talent and unique IPs, and what strategies do you use to transform them into profitable, sustainable properties?

Identifying emerging talent requires closely monitoring trends across platforms, fostering relationships with industry stakeholders, and staying attuned to ground-level buzz. For creating unique IPs, our focus lies in storytelling and differentiation. Turning these into sustainable properties involves building strong brand narratives, leveraging strategic partnerships, and ensuring a multi-platform presence to enhance visibility and generate consistent revenue streams.

One example is Sunburn. Over the years, we’ve worked on creating and growing Sunburn into one of Asia’s top 10 festivals. This success is a result of the unwavering support, passion, and involvement of everyone who has contributed throughout its journey. Now over 16-18 years strong, Sunburn thrives within an ecosystem of people who love live experiences and the artists that bring them to life. This network includes around 400-500 brand managers, marketing professionals, and media agencies, all of whom have collectively helped build a property we are proud of.

Using this expertise, we extend our knowledge to festival directors, organizers, and even media companies exploring the live entertainment space. We’re always open to sharing insights and processes to help others improve monetization strategies and add strategic elements to their festival IPs, ensuring long-term growth and sustainability.

Q6.What new developments can we expect from Sunburn, and what upcoming projects are lined up?

Sunburn is now part of BookMyShow, a partnership that has been in place for the past 2-3 years. The learnings from this collaboration have been invaluable, and we’re leveraging them to enhance our offerings. When we look at the broader music market, EDM is just one segment, while Bollywood remains a dominant genre. In that space, we’re excited about our IP, Bolly Boom, which has a packed calendar of events. We’ll be officially announcing it next week.

We’re planning over 60 events, including the launch of one of the largest Holi festivals in India, which will take place simultaneously across multiple cities. Additionally, we’re proud to be working with a major artist, whose name we’ll reveal soon through an official announcement.

From February onwards, our calendar is set to be incredibly busy, filled with exciting projects and events for fans of live entertainment.

Q7.With your deep understanding of consumer behavior, how do you anticipate shifts in audience preferences, and how does Percept Live ensure its offerings resonate with both local and international markets?

Anticipating audience preferences requires staying attuned to cultural trends, leveraging analytics, and fostering a feedback-rich environment. Percept Live ensures its IP's resonate with the consumers by blending local cultural flavors with universal appeal, customizing experiences for diverse demographics and embracing cutting-edge technology in large scale production to enhance consumer engagement. 

Q8.How do you envision the live entertainment industry evolving over the next five years?

We are currently at a point where the media and entertainment industry could witness 5-7x growth in the coming years. Even when compared to developed markets, Asia—and India, in particular—stands out as the fastest-growing region for live entertainment. This growth isn’t limited to large-format festivals; live entertainment is increasingly reaching closer to where people are.

There has been a noticeable rise in the number of clubs and restaurants featuring live music. Compared to pre-COVID times, these numbers have doubled or even tripled. This trend is expected to continue, along with a strong focus on large-format festivals, featuring international headliners and extensive tours by major Indian artists.

Additionally, a new layer of 30-40 emerging artists is coming to the forefront. While they may not yet be superstars, they show great potential to become the next big names. The emerging artist space is particularly exciting, with fresh sounds and innovative approaches reshaping what audiences expect. Cross-border collaborations are also gaining momentum, with Indian artists expanding their reach internationally, often organizing global tours independently.

We are likely to see increased traction in medium-sized festivals, localized entertainment, and community-based engagements. This growth won’t be limited to music but will also include other forms of performing arts. The future of live entertainment looks dynamic and expansive, with opportunities across diverse formats and geographies.