Legendary singer Lata Mangeshkar carried her dominance into the app age

In the past 12 months, her songs were streamed 6.7 billion times on her YouTube channel

Saregama, India’s oldest music label, is home to 130,000-plus songs. Every time any of these is played on streaming apps (YouTube, Spotify, Gaana), used by short video apps (Moj, Josh) or on TV (ads, shows), Saregama gets paid. In the financial year 2020-21, the company earned Rs 284 crore, or three-fourths of its revenue, from such licensing of songs by Lata Mangeshkar, Mohammed Rafi, Kishore Kumar et al. Songs from Saregama’s catalogue were streamed 85 billion times in the last financial year. “Lata Mangeshkar was the tallest singer we had,” said Vikram Mehra, managing director, Saregama. It has 80-90 per cent of Mangeshkar’s repertoire, amounting to 5,400 songs across languages.

There are some grossly inflated numbers on how many songs she recorded. These are incorrect, say industry insiders. There is no consolidated figure on what her songs earned. There is, however, a mountain of evidence on how much her voice drove the Rs 1,800-crore Indian music business, which is now dominated by streaming. More than 192 million Indians tune in to some streaming app or the other every month.

At over 450 million users a month, YouTube is India’s largest video and music OTT. In the past 12 months, Mangeshkar’s songs were streamed 6.7 billion times on her YouTube channel.

The top 10 songs on it are a wonderful mix from her phenomenal repertoire beginning 1942 to her more recent numbers. There are “Didi Tera Dewar Deewana” (Hum Aapke Hain Kaun, 1994), “Yeh Galiyan Yeh Chaubara” (“Prem Rog”, 1982), and “Ho Gaya Hai Tujhko To Pyaar Sajna” (Dilwale Dulhania Le Jaayenge, 1995). She has remained on the YouTube list of top 10 Indian artists along with many of her younger colleagues such as Alka Yagnik or Arijit Singh.  And she has been at number 11 on the top global artists chart, for over 294 weeks now.  

This is just YouTube. Her songs or videos of them are streamed millions of times from a variety of other platforms -- Shemaroo, Saregama, Spotify, Gaana, to name a few. “She has given more hits than anyone else,” pointed out Mehra.

“Her comfort across genres that straddled pop, rock and roll, disco, classical, romance, spiritual and folk gave her a fan base across the world,” added Blaise Fernandes, president, Indian Music Industry (IMI), a trade body.

Mangeshkar sang largely raga-based songs, usually in one sitting. The accompaniments were traditional instruments, some of which are not even used these days. Her dominance of the music economy in the streaming age then is testimony to the power of her voice.