OAFF aka Kabeer Kathpalia and Savera Mehta (from left to right).
In the last four years, Spotify’s RADAR program for Indian artists has spotlighted about 40 emerging artists, catapulting them into editorial playlists and even the Times Square billboard in New York City.
To celebrate, eight acts will perform in Mumbai on Jun. 22 as part of a gig called Spotify Radar India: Meet the Future. That includes music duo OAFF and Savera, hip-hop/pop duo Ranj x Clifr, Punjabi artist Burrah, singer-songwriters like Samad Khan and Marshall Robinson, singer-composer Hansika Pareek, pop duo Boys from Marsss and folk-fusion act Swastik The Band. Entry is free via RSVP, with the event taking place at Snow Ball Studios in Worli.
For a young artist like Pareek, who was on the Times Square billboard after featuring on Radar in February this year, performing in Mumbai is also entering new ground. She’s performed with Vishal Mishra and Amit Trivedi, with a covers-heavy set, but this is her first set comprising just her own music including “Laut Aao Na.” She says, “It’s very rare, because I don’t think many people have heard that many songs of mine, but I have the confidence that with Spotify providing the platform, people will listen. I’m happy.”
Coming in from New Delhi is Burrah, on the back of releasing “West Delhi,” his Punjabi ode to where he grew up. Thought up in 2020, it was only at a songwriting camp by Warner Music India that Burrah decided it was the right time to tell this particular story. “I’m coming with more pop music and a newer direction which is coming from a place of depth and love. I thought I’d start narrating my story from a place that gave everything to me,” he says.
At the Spotify Radar India performance, Burrah says he hopes to showcase a more intimate set and hints to his future direction, as well as the person he is. Burrah – who also participated in the reality show MTV Hustle last year – is on Spotify RADAR Punjabi playlist with “West Delhi,” which is a fairly new editorial playlist. “For me, this is like a rebirth. To be on Spotify RADAR, I was really happy. It’s a perfect alignment of getting to say what I want and I got the platform for my thoughts and vision. I’m very grateful about it. I’m building upon it now,” he says.
The gig closes with composer-producer OAFF and singer-composer and producer Savera, who recently put out their song “Ittefaq.” Their 20-minute set includes “a small surprise” alongside indie and film songs. Over time, Savera says it’s often “tricky” to figure out what the audience wants in terms of a mix of indie and film music from the duo. “Ideally, if it was all up to us, we would just decide our own set list and go […] We love both, but it also kind of helps us revisit our songwriting,” he adds.
Before film soundtrack fame with Gehraiyaan came their way, OAFF recounts being on Spotify India’s editorial playlists like RADAR and Release Radar in the past gave them a “massive push on an English song,” referring to “So Good,” his song with artist Kayan.
To that end, the support for emerging artists has been going on across Spotify’s ecosystem. Four out of six RADAR India artists in 2024 (January to June) have previously been featured on the Fresh Finds India playlist, including singer-songwriter Dot., Swastik the Band, Samad Khan, and Ranj.
Spotify India says that after being on the RADAR India cover, all 2024 artists have seen “double digit growth in listenership” on the platform. Dot. and Ranj have also gone on to feature on global playlists – while Dot. was on the cover of the Borderless playlist, Ranj featured on RADAR Global
Spotify India’s head of music and podcast Dhruvank Vaidya says in the last year alone, RADAR India has created 2.4 million new user-artist discoveries. He explains their decision to launch RADAR Punjabi and RADAR Tamil playlists and says it was based on seeing “a large number of talented, emerging artists regularly making music in languages such as Punjabi and Tamil.” Vaidya adds, “Punjabi and Tamil music listeners are amongst the most engaged on our platform, and listeners who consume Punjabi music spend more time on Spotify than any other similar platform. In addition to the RADAR language-specific playlists, there’s Fresh Finds Punjabi as well. “[We] hope to enable more artists to find their audience and showcase their talent through this [RADAR] program,” Vaidya adds.
