On January 25 and 26, 2025, Coldplay played their biggest-ever show at the Narendra Modi Stadium in Motera, Ahmedabad—the largest cricket stadium in the world—as part of their Music of the Spheres World Tour. The concerts drew massive crowds, fireworks, and a special Republic Day performance.
What unfolded was more than a spectacle; it was evidence of India’s evolving live entertainment ecosystem. “The concerts are not isolated cultural moments anymore,” says Samit Garg, President, Event and Entertainment Management Association (EEMA). “They sit at the top of a much larger cultural immersion funnel that is reaching its inflection point in India.”
That inflection point is visible in how global artists now view the country. As Anil Makhija, COO – Live Entertainment & Venues, BookMyShow, “It’s incredibly exciting to see the world’s biggest artists viewing India as a key stop on their global tours. The live entertainment landscape here has evolved at an unprecedented pace, and we’re hearing directly from global partners that artists recognise both the scale of the opportunity and the depth of genuine fandom in this market.
“Indian fans don’t just stream music—they follow artists’ journeys, engage deeply with their stories, and show up in overwhelming numbers to experience them live. That passion has created a ripple effect, making India an unmissable destination for international talent. Travis Scott bringing his Circus Maximus World Tour to New Delhi in October and returning to Mumbai in November—rare within the same tour cycle—signals the growing demand for world-class live music here.”
This inflection point has been building for nearly a decade. Around 2015, you could already see the live concert economy starting to take shape, says Rafael Pereira, Managing Partner at TINNUTS and Executive Trustee of India Music Exchange. “There were two or three companies fighting it out to do the biggest shows. What we didn’t yet have was a strong streaming audience.”
The turning point came with cheap data. “Jio’s free data plans gave people access to YouTube, Saavn, Gaana—and later Spotify,” Pereira explains. “Suddenly, you had close to 600 million people streaming music in India.” Even if only about 10% of that audience listens to international music, he notes, that still amounts to nearly 60 million people, “the population of a couple of European countries put together.”
