Gaana Emerges As The Top Player In Indian Podcasts In 2021

Gaana, India’s favourite music streaming app, celebrates the end of 2021 by emerging as India’s most preferred destination for podcasts. Despite intense competition in the Indian podcasting space, the app has carved a dominating position in a very short span of time, accounting for more than 50% of listen time across many of the Indian podcasters reached out in an outreach survey by the company.

With podcasts ruling among non-music content, what is interesting is the genres dominating the podcast listing. Music, Motivation, Stories and Devotional were the most heard genres in 2021.The vast catalogue not only includes exclusive Gaana Originals but also hosts a plethora of national and international podcasts through associations. ?     Overall consumption of podcasts on Gaana has increased by ~40% YoY. Consumer’s growing appetite for screen-free entertainment saw Gaana expanding its library to ~40,000 podcasts. ?     Demand for podcasts from regional markets increased by 32% in 2021.

*Number of streams, Dec 2020 to Nov 2021

Celebrating their success, Sandeep Lodha, CEO, Gaana, said, “Our position as a leading podcast platform further strengthens our existing leadership in music content and provides our listeners with an experience that is diverse and eclectic. It has been an unexpected year and we have fortunately been able to keep up with the ‘new normal’ of music & other audio listening formats. We have recorded a growth of 40% in terms of podcasts this year and will aim at doubling the numbers by the end of 2022.”

With an increasing appetite for new content, Indians did not shy away from exploring Gaana Originals thrusting Riya’s Retro, 90’s Ki Cassette with Manjula, RJ Kartik Motivation, Ansuna Sach with Jay Alani, Behad, and Premchand Ki Kahaniyan to the leader board.  These are exclusively produced by the company, using its expertise in user-generated content to support individual podcasters in content creation and broadcasting.

Gaana has also provided a level playing field for many independent artists, providing them with the means to reach out to its 185 million+ highly engaged and diverse audience. It worked closely with artists like Deepak Medatwal, Rajnish Kaushik, and Abhay Maheshwari playing a major part in their popularity. In 2022, Gaana plans to onboard more content creators, from independent artists to more established names. It also plans to further expand its partner network and continue being India’s most favourite music streaming app.