Glossary / Indian music

Industry terms

Regional language release

A regional language release is music in one of India's many languages, such as Tamil, Telugu, Kannada, Bengali, Marathi or Punjabi, released to reach listeners in that language.

Also called: regional music, vernacular music release

By Aulto · Last reviewed

Why does language metadata matter?

Streaming services organise much of their Indian catalogue by language: language pages, playlists and recommendations. A release tagged with the wrong language may miss the listeners it was made for.

Which details need care?

The language field, the script of the title (and whether a transliterated title is given), and artist names spelt the same way on every release.

How do you promote a regional release?

Where that audience already is: regional Instagram pages, WhatsApp groups and YouTube, in the language itself.

Example

A Marathi single is tagged Marathi, with the title in both Devanagari and English letters, and appears in Marathi new-release playlists.

  • Metadata

    Metadata is the information attached to a release: title, artist names, credits, language, genre, release date and codes like the ISRC and UPC.

  • Devotional music

    Devotional music is music made for worship and spiritual listening, like bhajans, aartis, kirtans and mantras, and it is one of India's largest music categories.

  • Lyrical video

    A lyrical video is a video that shows a song's lyrics on screen as it plays, the Indian music industry's go-to first video for a new song.

  • Caller tune

    A caller tune (CRBT, caller ring back tune) is a song people hear instead of the ringing sound when they call someone, set by the person being called.

  • Non-film music

    Non-film music is Indian music made outside the film industry, such as indie, pop, rap and singles released on their own, rather than songs written for films.

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