'Data does not create music': Spotify India head on algorithms, creativity and rise of indie artists

For years, conversations around streaming have revolved around numbers. Streams, charts, playlists and algorithms have become part of the vocabulary of modern music. But according to Spotify India Head of Music & Podcasts Dhruvank Vaidya, they are only part of the picture.

Speaking during Spotify's RADAR Malayalam launch in an exclusive chat with Mathrubhumi English, Vaidya pushed back against the idea that artists are creating music to satisfy algorithms instead of expressing themselves.

"Every artist creates music because that's the story they want to tell," he says. "That process is deeply personal. Data just helps through the journey."

It's an interesting perspective at a time when streaming platforms are often criticised for encouraging music that performs well instead of music that takes risks. For Vaidya, technology should help artists understand their audiences, not dictate what they create.

He points to Spotify for Artists as an example. The platform gives musicians access to listener insights, cities where their music is performing well and audience trends, but he believes those tools should come after the creative process, not before it.

The conversation also reflected how India's music ecosystem has changed over the last few years. While film soundtracks once dominated listening habits, Vaidya says the country's independent music scene has steadily carved out its own space.

Hip hop was among the first genres to make that shift visible, with artists building loyal audiences outside the film industry. Now, he says, pop and several regional independent scenes are beginning to follow a similar path, giving listeners more music to discover beyond cinema.

For him, the bigger change isn't tied to a single genre. It's the rise of what he calls "artist-first music", where musicians build careers around their own releases instead of relying on film projects.

That shift, he believes, will continue to define India's music landscape over the next decade.

If there's one thing that makes India stand apart, Vaidya says, it's the way listeners move effortlessly across languages.

"What is very unique to India is all the languages that come together," he says. "Most of us know three or four languages. Music breaks language barriers. You may not understand every lyric, but you still connect with the song."

That openness has helped regional music travel further than ever before. Listeners are increasingly discovering songs outside their native languages, turning playlists into spaces where Malayalam, Tamil, Punjabi, Hindi and English tracks comfortably coexist.

Streaming, he argues, has also made music a far more personal experience.

Rather than listening by genre alone, people now create playlists around moods, routines and moments. Whether it's a workout, a late-night drive or Spotify's own popular 1 AM Feels playlist, listeners are curating soundtracks for specific parts of their day.

"What '1 AM Feels' means is for that individual to decide," Vaidya says, adding that personalised recommendations become more intuitive the more people listen.

That personal connection is perhaps most visible every year when Spotify Wrapped floods social media. While many users joke about trying to influence their annual recap, Vaidya says listening habits are built over months, not weeks.

"Wrapped is based on your entire year's listening. It's not something you can change instantly."

He laughs that even his own Wrapped has remained remarkably consistent over the years. The reason, he says, lies in nostalgia.

"The artist I listened to while growing up still comes back every year. Those early listening habits stay with you. Whenever you want comfort, you naturally go back to that music."

For all the conversations around artificial intelligence, recommendation engines and streaming metrics, Vaidya believes the future of music will still be shaped by artists, not algorithms.

His prediction for 2030 is simple.

"The growth of artist-first music. There will be many more artists in the country."

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Whether listeners discover those artists through a playlist, a recommendation or a late-night search may change with technology. The reason they stay, Vaidya suggests, will remain exactly what it has always been: a good song that tells a story.