Last week, Spotify shocked the music industry by discontinuing its Viral Songs chart. In India, it was among the few places that put a spotlight on upcoming music acts, and served as a discovery tool for both listeners and A&Rs. In this episode, we discuss the role the chart played, the possible reasons behind Spotify’s decision and whether it’s good or bad for the Indian music business.

Last month witnessed the long-awaited return of BTS with the release of their new album ‘Arirang’. While the comeback effort broke streaming records globally, lead single “Swim”, somewhat surprisingly, did not follow earlier hits such as“Dynamite”, “Butter” and “Permission To Dance” to the No.1 spot in India. The album, meanwhile, debuted at No.2 on Spotify’s chart for the country. For any other international release, that would be a remarkable achievement but given BTS’s chart history, it feels like the LP has underperformed here. How far is this true? And what are the reasons for it? On this special episode, we’re joined by our friends, the hosts of the ‘K-Pop in India’ podcast, Shreya Khaladkar and Soham Sengupta, to help us answer these questions.

Pre-pandemic, India’s handful of multi-genre music festivals focused on independent musicians in the traditional sense of the term. In the recent past, as the lines between indie and mainstream have blurred, there’s a lot more pop on festival bills, and it seems like programmers are closely watching the charts. On this week’s episode, we talk about why this is happening and the pros and cons of the trend.