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Spotify’s India Catalogue Compared to Spotify US: Which One Is Better?

Spotify’s India Catalogue Compared to Spotify US: Which One Is Better?

By Pranay Parab | Updated: 1 March 2019 11:51 IST

Spotify's US catalogue is impressive but the collection in India isn't too far behind

Highlights

Spotify US has an exhaustive library of music
Spotify India isn’t too far behind at launch
We compared 100 songs, both Indian and global, on Spotify US, India

Spotify's India launch has generated quite a bit of excitement and even though the service has an impressive set of features, it's only as good as its catalogue. There's no easy way to do an exhaustive comparison of all the songs on the service available in the US and to check if all of those are available in India, or vice versa. This is why we came up with a method to check if the most popular songs are on Spotify India.

We selected the top 20 bestselling albums of all time, top 20 songs from US' Billboard top 100, top 20 most played Indian songs from YouTube, 20 popular new Bollywood songs, and 20 video game soundtracks that we like. We checked if each of these 100 songs or albums is on Spotify US and then checked if they are available on Spotify India. Spotify is known to have a good collection of video game music, and that's why we added that category.

Our method is exhaustive enough to give most people an idea about what Spotify India has and what it does not. Spotify India's legal dispute with Warner is the reason behind some notable absences, but that doesn't apply to Indian music as much as it does to its international catalogue. We didn't check every song or band out there, so we can't definitively say that Spotify India is better or worse than US for everyone. However, we're confident that this piece will help most people decide whether they should switch to Spotify India or stick with either Spotify US or whichever other streaming service they use right now.

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Spotify India vs Spotify US

All-time bestselling albums

Wikipedia has a useful list of bestselling albums. We picked the top 20 from that list and checked Spotify US and Spotify India. All of the albums are available on the US version of the service, but Eagles, Fleetwood Mac, Alanis Morissette, and Madonna's most popular albums are missing on Spotify India. This is possibly due to the legal dispute we mentioned earlier. You can check all the albums and their availability on Spotify via the following table.

Artist	Album	Spotify US	Spotify India
Michael Jackson	Thriller	✅	✅
Eagles	The Greatest Hits 1971-75	✅	❌
AC/DC	Back in Black	✅	✅
Pink Floyd	The Dark Side of the Moon	✅	✅
Whitney Houston	The Bodyguard	✅	✅
Meat Loaf	Bat Out of Hell	✅	✅
Eagles	Hotel California	✅	❌
Bee Gees	Saturday Night Fever	✅	✅
Fleetwood Mac	Rumours	✅	❌
Shania Twain	Come On Over	✅	✅
Led Zeppelin	Led Zeppelin IV	✅	❌
Adele	21	✅	✅
Alanis Morissette	Jagged Little Pill	✅	❌
The Beatles	1	✅	✅
ABBA	Gold: Greatest Hits	✅	✅
Guns N' Roses	Appetite for Destruction	✅	✅
Santana	Supernatural	✅	✅
Metallica	Metallica	✅	✅
Madonna	The Immaculate Collection	✅	❌
Celine Dion	Falling into You	✅	✅

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Spotify India vs Spotify US: Top 20 songs from Billboard Top 100

Billboard magazine's top 100 list is the definitive chart for the most popular music in the United States. We picked the top 20 songs from this list and the results are in the table below. Cardi B, Panic! At the Disco, Meek Mill, and YNW Melly are the notable omissions from Spotify India.

Song	Artist	Spotify US	Spotify India
7 Rings	Ariana Grande	✅	✅
Without Me	Halsey	✅	✅
Sunflower (Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse)	Post Malone, Swae Lee	✅	✅
Thank U, Next	Ariana Grande	✅	✅
Please Me	Cardi B, Bruno Mars	✅	❌
Happier	Marshmello, Bastille	✅	✅
Sicko Mode	Travis Scott	✅	✅
Break Up With Your Girlfriend, I'm Bored	Ariana Grande	✅	✅
High Hopes	Panic! At The Disco	✅	❌
Wow.	Post Malone	✅	✅
Middle Child	J. Cole	✅	✅
Eastside	benny blanco, Halsey, Khalid	✅	✅
Thotiana	Blueface	✅	✅
Murder On My Mind	YNW Melly	✅	❌
Going Bad	Meek Mill Featuring Drake	✅	❌
Money	Cardi B	✅	❌
A Lot	21 Savage	✅	✅
Drip Too Hard	Lil Baby, Gunna	✅	✅
Girls Like You	Maroon 5 Featuring Cardi B	✅	✅
Better	Khalid	✅	✅

Spotify India vs Spotify US: Most popular Indian songs on YouTube

Many Indians listen to music on YouTube because it's free and has pretty much every song that one could ask for. We picked the 20 most popular Indian songs from YouTube and found that all of them are on both Spotify US and Spotify India. Details in the table below.

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Song	Album/film/artist	Spotify US	Spotify India
Swag se Swagat	Tiger Zinda Hai	✅	✅
Mile ho Tum	Neha Kakkar	✅	✅
Lahore	Guru Randhawa	✅	✅
Laung Laachi Title Track	Laung Laachi	✅	✅
High Rated Gabru	Guru Randhawa	✅	✅
Zaroori Tha	Rahat Fateh Ali Khan	✅	✅
Kaala Chashma	Baar Baar Dekho	✅	✅
Badri Ki Dulhania	Badrinath Ki Dulhania	✅	✅
Nashe si Chadh Gayi	Befikre	✅	✅
Dil Diyan Gallan	Tiger Zinda Hai	✅	✅
Dilbar	Satyamev Jayate	✅	✅
Cheez Badi	Machine	✅	✅
Prada	Jass Manak	✅	✅
Daaru Badnaam	Kamal Kahlon, Param Singh	✅	✅
Cham Cham	Baaghi	✅	✅
Aankh Maarey	Simmba	✅	✅
Prem Ratan Dhan Paayo	Prem Ratan Dhan Paayo	✅	✅
Phir Bhi Tumko Chaahunga	Half Girlfriend	✅	✅
Bom Diggy Diggy	Sonu Ke Titu Ki Sweety	✅	✅
Made In India	Guru Randhawa	✅	✅

Spotify India vs Spotify US: Popular recent Indian songs

The next step was to look for recent Indian songs that are popular in India right now. We compiled this list of songs from multiple sources including what we've heard on FM radio, iTunes top charts, and the songs played often on TV channels. We picked only one song per album or film, which means films such as Gully Boy have only one representative in the table below, in spite of having three songs that make the cut for this checklist. Ek Ladki Ko Dekha Toh Aisa Laga, Fraud Saiyaan, and Total Dhamaal emerged as the three missing albums on Spotify India. Oh yes, we threw in Daler Mehndi's Tunak Tunak Tun right at the end just for fun.

Song	Album/artist/film	Spotify US	Spotify India
Apna Time Aayega	Gully Boy	✅	✅
Tera Ghata	Gajendra Yadav	✅	✅
Proper Patola	Namaste England	✅	✅
Tere Bin	Simmba	✅	✅
Ek Ladki Ko Dekha Toh Aisa Laga	Ek Ladki Ko Dekha Toh Aisa Laga	✅	❌
Leja Re	Dhvani Bhanushali	✅	✅
Makhna	Yo Yo Honey Singh	✅	✅
Coca Cola	Luka Chippi	✅	✅
Kya Baat Ay	Harrdy Sandhu	✅	✅
Mungda	Total Dhamaal	✅	❌
Nikle Currant	Jassi Gill, Neha Kakkar	✅	✅
She Move It Like	Badshaah	✅	✅
Chamma Chamma	Fraud Saiyaan	✅	❌
Mere Naam Tu	Zero	✅	✅
Chogada	Loveyatri	✅	✅
Gali Gali	KGF	✅	✅
Dilbaro	Raazi	✅	✅
Lamberghini	The Doorbeen	✅	✅
Kamariya	Mitron	✅	✅
Tunak Tunak Tun	Daler Mehndi	✅	✅

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Spotify India vs Spotify US: Video game soundtracks

There's no definitive list of the best video game soundtracks that everyone will agree on. Video game music data isn't as easily available as the other types of music mentioned in this article. That is why we picked our favourite video game soundtracks and checked if these are available on Spotify India and its US counterpart. Video game music is not easily available on streaming services because some publishers such as Square Enix prefer not to put their game soundtracks on streaming services. That's why there are more omissions than usual in the table below.

Video game soundtrack	Spotify US	Spotify India
Chrono Trigger	❌	❌
Crypt of the Necrodancer (main album)	✅	✅
Super Meat Boy	✅	✅
VA-11-Hall-A	✅	✅
Stellaris	✅	✅
DMC 5's Devil Trigger	✅	✅
Ys VIII: Lacrimosa of Dana	✅	✅
Final Fantasy VII	❌	❌
Mass Effect	✅	❌
Super Smash Bros. Ultimate	❌	❌
Castlevania	❌	❌
Street Fighter II	✅	❌
The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim	✅	✅
Deus Ex: Human Revolution	❌	❌
Undertale	✅	✅
VVVVVV	✅	✅
Final Fantasy XV	❌	❌
Nier Automata	❌	❌
Bastion	✅	✅
Persona 4	❌	❌

Does Spotify India have all the music you were looking for? If not, which music streaming service do you prefer? Let us know via the comments.

We discussed Spotify's India launch on Orbital, our weekly technology podcast, which you can subscribe to via Apple Podcasts or RSS, download the episode, or just hit the play button below.

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