The industry was dominated by cassette tapes in the 1980s and 1990s. In 1990, India had annual cassette sales of 180million units, including both legitimate and pirate sales. This made it the world's second largest cassette market, after the United States. By 1998, the industry had annual earnings of . In the early 2000s, 49million cassettes were sold every month. Later in the 2000s, the industry transitioned to online streaming, bypassing CD and digital downloads.
Criteria of certification levels
The Indian Music Industry has constituted different, prestigious awards to encourage and promote music. The approved scheme of gold/platinum disc standards effective for sound recordings of member companies released in one calendar year is as below:
Sales of all types of carriers, whether vinyl records, audio cassettes, compact discs, MP3 compact discs, music videos or any other existing or future type of carrier is considered on the basis of one unit.
If a sound recording contains a combination of two program, any program over half of its total duration can be weighted at 50%, of the sales of the sound recording of that program. Any program comprising less than half of the total duration of the sound recording will not be counted for the purpose of certification.
Sales in domestic markets only will be considered for the calculation of sales of sound recording.
The time-limit for achieving above sales in any category is one year from the release of the recording in India.
Applications should be accompanied by a copy certified by the member’s chartered accountant stating the date of release & the number of units sold, along with a letter from the managing director or CEO.
Charts
Indian Music Industry does not maintain official music charts. Since 2010, newspaper The Times of India and radio channelRadio Mirchi, both owned by the Times Group, have maintained charts of various songs by category. For the album charts the industry considers the sales according to iTunes. For individual songs, there are various other charts such as provided by Saavn and Nokia MixRadio
Major Indian charts
Certification levels
India has separate scales for music recording certifications. Certifications are usually based on sales, like some other Asian countries. Like many other Asian countries, domestic repertoire accounts for the majority of the Indian music market. Like many other countries, sales requirements of music recording in India reduced due to music piracy, declining sales, and the rise of online streaming.
Current
The following are the current certification levels, as of 2019. Single and album units are measured in terms of Track Equivalent and Album Equivalent units, respectively, which are equivalent to the following media units.
Media unit
Track Equivalent
Album Equivalent
Digital track download
1
10
Digital album download
1
Physical album sale
1
CRBT (30 days
2
20
Track streams
100
1,000
Video streams
300
3,000
Previous
Prior to the inclusion of music streaming in IMI certifications, the following certification levels were in use between 2007 and 2013.
Release type
Gold
Platinum
Hindi Films
200,000
400,000
Regional Films
50,000
100,000
Regional Basic
25,000
50,000
National Basic
50,000
100,000
Classical/Non-Classical
15,000
30,000
International
4,000
6,000
The following certification levels were in use between 2000 and 2007.
Release type
Gold
Platinum
Hindi Films
500,000
1,000,000
Regional Films
100,000
200,000
Regional Basic
60,000
120,000
National Basic
100,000
200,000
Classical/Semi-Classical
20,000
40,000
International (2006
10,000
20,000
International (2000
20,000
40,000
The following certification levels were in use up until 2000.
