Ladies and gentlemen, good day and welcome to Tips Music Limited Q4 and FY25 earnings conference call. As a reminder, all participant lines will be in the listen-only mode, and there will be an opportunity for you to ask questions after the presentation concludes. Should you need assistance during the conference call, please signal an operator by pressing star, then zero on your touch-tone phone. Please note that this conference is being recorded. I now hand the conference over to Ms. Ayushi Gupta. Thank you, and over to you, ma'am.
Thank you. Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. I welcome you to the Q4 and FY25 earnings conference call for Tips Music Limited. To discuss this quarter's performance, we have from the management, Mr. Kumar Taurani, Chairman and Managing Director; Mr. Girish Taurani, Executive Director; Mr. Hari Nair, Chief Executive Officer; and Mr. Sushant Dalmia, Chief Financial Officer. Before we proceed with the call, I would like to mention that some of the statements made in this today's call may be forward-looking in nature and may involve risks and uncertainties. For more details, kindly refer to the investor presentation and other filings that can be found on the company's website. Without further ado, I would like to hand over the call to the management for their opening remarks, and then we will open the floor for Q&A. Thank you, and over to you, sir.
Thank you. Good morning, everyone, and welcome to the Q4 FY2025 earnings call of Tips Music Limited. FY2025 has truly been a landmark year for us. Our CFO, Sushant Dalmia, brought to light an interesting financial fact which I want to share with you. In FY2023, our revenue was INR 187 crore, and now in FY2025, our profit is INR 167 crore. After every two, two and a half years, our earnings are equivalent. He also informs me that Tips Music is one of the few listed companies in India to have seen this kind of strong financial growth. With God's grace and your support, we hope to set new records. We have distributed INR 136 crore in FY2025 in the form of buybacks and dividends. Moving forward, Tips will always focus on acquiring and delivering high-quality music content.
For financial year 2026, we plan to invest in the range of 25%-28% of our revenue in new content acquisition. With that, I now invite our CEO, Mr. Hari Nair, to share his thoughts. Over to you, Hari.
Thank you, sir. Good morning, everyone. I'm happy to state that we have delivered a 29% growth in revenue and 31% growth in PAT for the year 2025. The growth in our revenue has been across digital and non-digital segments. We have seen a healthy consumption of our content across YouTube, Spotify, Meta, Amazon, Apple, Gaana, Saavn, Snapchat, public performance, and witnessed new partnership deals via our newly created brands division. In Q4, we announced an extension of our deal with Sony Music Publishing, adding YouTube as a platform for international publishing exploitation. Going ahead, we are committed to a strong growth across platforms driven by our catalog and new content acquisition from films and independent music. I will now request Girish to share insights on the content and digital business. Thank you, everyone.
Thank you, Hari. Good morning, everybody. In Q4, we saw strong traction across platforms, both from new releases and our catalog. We released 105 new songs in FY2025, including 37 film songs and 68 non-film songs. This year, our focus has been more on delivering quality content over quantity. Two songs from the film Hari Hara Veera Mallu , Telugu film, released in Q4, crossed over 50 million views on YouTube. Our catalogs continue to perform well too. The song Taaron Ko
Additionally, we now have 117 million subscribers on YouTube, with a cumulative aggregate growth of 22% over the last three years. Now, I will hand over the call to Sushant, who will take you through the company's financial performance. Thank you.
Thank you, Girish. Welcome to the Q4 FY2025 earnings call. I'm pleased to share the financial highlights of this quarter, reflecting strong performance of the company. Our revenue for the quarter amounted to INR 78.5 crore, resulting in Y-o-Y growth of 24%. The content costs during the quarter increased by 25% on a Y-o-Y basis, as we had used releases in regional languages such as Telugu and Punjabi. Secondly, please note that employee expenses during the quarter include ex-gratia provision of approximately INR 1 crore and a variable pay provision of INR 0.7 crore, while other expenses include a provision for doubtful debt amounting to INR 2.5 crore, which is done on a conservative basis. Factoring the above, operating margins came in at 47%, while PAT for the quarter was at INR 31 crore, resulting in a Y-o-Y growth of 19%.
During FY2025, the company has declared a cumulative interim dividend of INR 7 per share and a buyback for non-promoter shareholders amounting to INR 46.6 crores, which brings the payout ratio for FY2025 to around 82%. With this, I conclude my opening remarks and open the floor for Q&A.
Thank you very much, sir. We will now begin the question and answer session. Anyone who wishes to ask a question may press star and one on their touch-tone telephone. If you wish to withdraw yourself from the question queue, you may press star and two. Participants are requested to use handsets while asking a question. Ladies and gentlemen, we'll wait for a moment while the question queue assembles. We have our first question from the line of Harsh Shah from Dalal & Broacha. Please go ahead.
Yeah, thanks for the opportunity. A few questions from my side. Firstly, on the revenue part, right, could you quantify the amount that we have received from Warner in FY 2025?
Okay. Whatever Warner do, their business, we count that in the business. I think Warner must be in the range of around 25% to around 25%. Maybe a little bit.
Full year revenue?
Yeah, full year revenue.
Okay. That would be around INR 70 crore? INR 60 crore?
Yeah, must be.
Then a follow-up on that, if I look at my six-monthly balance sheet and compare it to the full year balance sheet, it seems that the collection from Warner in H2 has been a bit lower on the lower side as compared to H1. Any specific reason for that?
No, it's depending upon many things. Sometimes we have a few deals in advance or payments coming late. This happens. You can't compare our business as a quarter-to-quarter basis. Maybe Sushant, you can clarify further.
Harsh, let's say there would be a few deals which you did in Q4. Let's say the SMP or TikTok, so there would be some advances coming in from that. Let's say Warner deal, as you're aware, we book the revenue. This is the consumption report. What Kumarji has said, that it's in the range of around 20%-25% of our revenue, of the overall revenue.
Got it. Okay. Secondly, if I were to kind of get a ballpark figure in terms of what would have been our growth in the YouTube revenue, our assumption, basically, I'll do correct me if I'm wrong, our assumption says that the growth for the full year in YouTube would have been around 14%-15%. Is that correct? I mean, if you could give some color on that front?
Yeah, Sushant?
Let's say, Harsh, on YouTube revenue, it would be in line with what the company growth rate is. We don't provide any individual breakup of the segments.
Please, we can't give you this information because it's a competitive world. We can't give you a client-wise breakup. Please excuse us for that.
Yeah, no worries. Last question from my side. Basically, your opening commentary, you said that the content cost for next year would be around 25%-28% of our revenue. Is the assumption correct that the absolute amount could be in the range of INR 95 crore-INR 120 crore in terms of content acquisition?
Yes, we are targeting that, yeah.
Yeah, that is on my side. Thank you.
Thank you. We have our next question from the line of Sagar Jethwani from PhillipCapital . Please go ahead.
Yeah, thank you for the opportunity. Can you help me with the amount of these doubtful debts included in the other expenses?
Sagar, it is around INR 2.5 crore, which we have provided on.
What was the reason for him?
A couple of things in this. There was certain old content advances which were more than three years. We have done a provision on a conservative basis. Second, there was a loan given also to one of our first-rate landlords, which was outstanding for more than three years. We have provided it also on a conservative basis.
Is there any need for the further provision going further?
No, no, no.
Okay. Other expenses would iron out, right, going ahead?
Yes, yes. That's true.
Okay. Second question is on, as per the last four years trend in Q4 quarter, your content cost is typically highest, and therefore the margins in Q4 is lowest. What is the logic for the content cost being highest in Q4?
See, whatever, it's not in our control. It's as and when producers give us the track and tell us the release date, we have to release the content. That happens.
Okay, okay. Thanks for this explanation. Thank you.
Thank you. We have our next question from the line of Saket Mehrotra from Tusk Investments. Please go ahead.
Thank you. Hari ji, great set of numbers. Just wanted to understand what's our guidance and what's our outlook for the next year, and how are we looking at it? Is it consistent across what we've been talking about for the last few years?
Next year, as you all know, the industry is growing by 15%-20%. As our commitment, we will definitely expect we will achieve 30%, 30% as we all the time for the last few years. Because we have a lot of new releases coming up, and there are a lot of deals already signed, we still target we will achieve that 30%, 30%. Plus, our '90s repertoire is really doing well, if you see this year as well. Plus, this year, we have a stronger new releases. We will, quite hopefully, we will achieve that number, 30%, 30%.
Okay. We are confident of our 30% growth guidance for the next year as well, right? That's what you're saying?
Yes, yes.
Great. Also, you've been mentioning about this flow of premium coming through very sharply, and maybe Hari ji, even you can comment on this. How are we seeing that landscape evolving? Are we getting the benefit of these increased paid subscriptions on Spotify, YouTube? How does that landscape look like?
I think.
Sorry, sir.
Yeah, go on.
No, so every year-on-year basis, the paid subscriptions are increasing. If you see the platforms like Spotify, they're putting in more restrictions, and they are pushing the consumers towards the paid model. Overall, it's very promising and a positive thing for the entire industry. That's all I can say right now.
Okay. Looking at these collection societies, is that still a growth engine for us? Has that paid consolidated further, or is it going to be similar to what we've seen in the last few years?
No, what we have done is our publishing deal with SM P is looking very promising, and we expect a lot of growth coming in from that. Yeah, IPRS and other societies are continuously growing in India, thanks to the consumption that happens in India.
Okay. Thank you. Thank you so much.
Yeah. Thank you.
Thank you too, Saket. Hello?
Yeah, sir. He's connected.
Yeah. Saket, you know the worldwide total streams happen is around 7 billion streams happen. USA alone do 1.27, 1.45 trillion streams. And we India, we did in 2020, we did 0.5 billion and last year we did 1 billion Oh, sorry, 1 trillion. There was a lot of scope there to increase our billions, streams in trillions, and plus revenue also. I think that's a very, very big thing for the Indian industry, for our music business, which we expect we will have a very good business for next four to five years.
Okay. Yeah, I mean, that's what we are betting on, and thanks for that insight. I don't have any other questions. Thank you. Thank you, sir.
Thank you. We have our next question from the line of Ravi Naredi from Naredi Investments. Please go ahead.
Thank you, Taurani Ji. As usual, you are fantastic with that. Our profit margin for the whole year is 53.6%, while in quarter four, it is 39%. Can you guide margin projection for financial year 2026 onwards?
See, as I told you earlier also, please do not look at us at a quarter-to-quarter basis. Please see us on a yearly basis. Yearly, we have achieved our 31% growth in flag. This year, we are keeping that same number, 30%. We are targeting ourselves for 30% top line, 30% bottom line. We will grow. That is our target, and we are working hard towards that, acquiring new releases, new content. Our '90s repertoire doing really well. All the platforms we have touched with doing well. That is our target for this coming year also.
Sir, it was two songs, songs after I gave Taaron Ko Mohabbat Amber Se and Badal Gayi Hai Yeh Duniya . These songs again famous. What is the reason or such thing happened in the past also?
See, this happens because somebody likes the song, and he just made a reel or something, and then suddenly it catches on. These things happen in our business. They are many , Tips songs , [Foreign language] , as I told you, our repertoire, '90s repertoire from 1988 and 2020, whatever we have acquired, is really doing so well. You can count as best-selling catalog today. That is the reason, and anything can pick up anytime.
Right. Hello?
Yeah, yeah.
Sir, you show global music label revenue only 2%. What is music label at global level? Can you describe this?
Sushant, can you take that?
Ravi Ji, let's say we are saying India shares the global buy is around 2%, and globally, let's say the music label is around $29 billion.
Right. So this is what is this music label?
Music label means the music companies globally, let's say the bigger ones and the smaller ones all put together.
You mean to say India will grow definitely in comparison to $29 billion, right?
Overall, let's say in terms of overall volume-wise, India has a much larger share, but it's 22%. That will grow substantially given that subscription is now picking up in India. That's the underlying message.
Okay, okay, okay. One more thing. We bought fewer songs this year, 443, while we paid INR 71 crore. In last year, we bought 733 songs and paid INR 56 crore. Can we treat now the song cost is costly or what is this?
See, we are acquiring films, and we are focusing on quality content. As I said earlier and earlier also, we will be releasing less and less quantity. These are the old songs we have acquired, which we are releasing. Going forward, we are targeting to release 100 songs to 125 songs, but we will invest 25%-28% of our top line. That is our updated thinking. We should do that for quality over quantity.
Right, right, right. What about the Bollywood scene currently going on?
Yeah, it's happening.
We are looking for good music, and whenever we have an opportunity, we acquire good films, good music. We are doing that.
Okay, Taurani. Thank you very much.
Thank you. We have our next question from the line of Kavish Parekh from B&K Securities. Please go ahead.
Hi, thanks for the opportunity. I have a few questions. Firstly, on growth, while we have managed to end the year with 29% Y-o-Y worldwide growth, this also included benefits to the tune of about I NR 12 crores in the first half on account of Wynk Music. Excluding the chain, growth was about 24%. I understand that you've mentioned that you still stick to your 30% growth guidance. What exactly will be driving this growth? Is it solely in terms of deals? Your numbers from the Warner deals are already in the base. Short-format platforms moving to consumption-linked models is at least a couple of years away. Catalog music, which is about 85% of our top line, is growing at 15%-17%. Is it solely the new deals that we source that will contribute to this growth? What really gives you the confidence on this aspiration?
See, my content is really doing well, and short content also giving us good money. Streaming is happening. Overall, same drivers, but not a major change. Content plus this year, we have a lot of good new releases. I think we will achieve whatever we are saying. As far as Wink is concerned, earlier years, we do not have any on the country. If you see Wink, we have suffered big time. For six-seven years, we were fighting with them, and ultimately, we got settled with INR12 crores, what we had declared earlier. Earlier, we have not recognized that. Somewhere, we have to also take that into account. If you do that, then even I think 24% is also good. I do not think it is bad. As you want, you can calculate. That is not a.
No, no. I understand that that 24% is also a fairly healthy number. My only question was, does it ramp up from this 24% to 30% with your Warner numbers already being in the base? Understood. I think it will largely be driven by new content that requires more quality content coming out and us acquiring that.
Yes.
Understood. Secondly, could you explain the working capital movements in this fiscal? Does it pertain to timing differences in receipt of advances from Warner? The amounts were received in maybe April this time, which is why they are not reflecting in FY 2025. Is this something different from last year? Anything that you would like to highlight?
We have received one installment in March, I feel, and another one we are going to receive in October. We are receiving. Whatever commitment was that, that's happening.
Okay. This dip in CFO, the reported CFO, that is on account of this very Warner deal?
Sushant, buta?
Kavish, on this Warner deal, what Kumar Ji said is one tranche is expected in October. That is why you see that when you compare it with last year, you see that dip. Otherwise, there are no other dips on the cash flows.
In FY24, the amounts were received, the advances were received in March? In March 2024 or April 2024?
Let's say the first tranche we received at the end of March 2024.
Understood. That is a part of your FY24 numbers, and the second tranche is.
FY 2024 numbers, that's right.
That's right. The second tranche came in April 2025?
One tranche, the second tranche was divided into two parts. Let's say one came in, let's say April 2025, right? And the second part of the second tranche came in October. Will come in October.
Understood. April, it was not March. Had it been in March, I think numbers would have reflected in our FY25 reported numbers itself.
Yes.
Understood, understood. Thanks a lot.
Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, in order to ensure that the management is able to take questions from all participants in the conference, please restrict yourself to two questions per participant. Should you have a follow-up question, we request you to rejoin the queue. The next question is from the line of Jyothi Singh from Arihant Capital Markets. Please go ahead.
Yeah. Thank you so much for the opportunity. The actual question is on the vertical side, audible?
No.
No. Yeah. Sorry. Thank you for the opportunity. My question is on the vertical side. We are doing a lot of things, but are we open for the podcasting also going forward? Any visibility on that side?
Actually, we don't have any immediate plans. We are focusing on music. Music is a big business. We don't have, but if there is any opportunity or we feel we have to necessarily go for that, maybe we can do that. It's one more thing we can do. I think music business is better than this podcast. Podcast is a one-time listening. If you've seen that podcast, it's a long, long podcast. You even don't listen to the entire podcast. We feel music business is better. Our major focus is on that.
Okay. In the opening comment, we mentioned on the 200 reels and all on the song side. Are there any efforts to improve monetization on the Meta side and what kind of revenue we are seeing? I know because of the competition, we are not able to discuss on the number part, but at least if you can give us a little visibility on the Meta monetization, how it is happening, and what kind of visibility we are seeing going forward.
Yeah. I always mention three or four things which can really give us a boost or we depend on them. One is absolutely streaming and all that subscription business. We are very, very hopeful it's going to increase. Number two is just reels and all this. If TikTok settles in the U.S., it will be coming to India also. This short content will also get us huge revenues. We are seeing the difference. You must be knowing, I think one year back, we were not giving our content to Instagram, but last year, we added Instagram also in the Warner deal. We are really getting good revenues from that service. We are very hopeful it will be very huge for us. Number three is public performance, that events happening. We have big business in India. We are getting leads from their licensing.
Plus, we have given the Sony Publishing deal has happened for us. Publishing also is giving us good revenues. I am quite hopeful this will give us good revenues and we will achieve our targets.
Thank you, sir.
Thank you.
Thank you. We have our next question from the line of Garvit Goyal from Nvest Analytics Advisory . Please go ahead.
Hello. Am I audible?
Yeah.
Good morning, sir. Congrats for good numbers. My questions are already answered. Just one question left. In this quarter, content per post has increased significantly if we are comparing it with last three quarters. I agree we are focusing on quality of the film, but considering that our growth for next year is particularly driven by the new releases, do not you think it is going to impact our margins and thus our PAT growth is somewhere like underperforming our top-line growth?
How come that happened? I don't think, Sushant, please clarify this.
Thanks, Garvit. What we have said earlier, also let's say we are targeting that content budget of 25%-28%. Let's say we will be targeting that growth, but depending on the releases, how it comes up in which quarter and everything, there could be minor variations.
I mean, 30%. What I mean to say is, are we going to sustain our PAT margins in the upcoming year as compared to this year, despite releasing these higher costs of quality songs? That's what I'm trying to ask.
Garvit, let's say this year, our operating margins were around 56.5%. Next year also, let's say it could be in that range of 64%-67%, depending on how the content gets released, but it would be in this range.
Understood. Sir, secondly, on our CFO EBITDA ratio, this year, I think it fell down to 58% mainly because of some decrease in financial liabilities and current non-current liabilities. Further, there is some increase in the other current assets. Can you highlight what are these items and why these are reducing our cash flows?
If you compare it with last year, last year, let's say the ratio was higher because we had received certain tranches in advance from Warner, let's say at the end of March. This year, let's say that tranche has come in April. That's why you see that cash flow from operations, the percentage which you are comparing with EBITDA, is on the lower side. In our business, we get the money in advance. Or in some cases, the credit cycle is for 30 days only. On a longer-term basis, whatever we are earning on EBITDA or PAT basis, that directly reflects in our cash flow. You have to, let's say, see it on a two to three-year basis rather than a single year.
Understood. Sir, can you please share any stats on how subscription revenues are going on at industry levels, how these things are shaping up, whether the people are very much open to it, or how the industry data is looking like, which is giving us the confidence that we are going to be the beneficiary in the upcoming years of this trend?
The industry data is very positive. If you see the year-on-year consumption that happens in India, for our Indian content, it's growing very rapidly thanks to Spotify, YouTube, and the short-format video apps, like you heard, how the older content is suddenly picking up. Content consumption is exploding for us. The revenue equally must explode, but the explosion may be in a slower manner. I feel that overall, the paid ecosystem, everything is growing. I think India is a great market to be in for music.
Okay. Thank you very much, sir. All the best for the season.
Thank you. A reminder to all participants, please restrict yourself to two questions per participant only. We have our next question from the line of Abhishek Sengupta from AB Capital. Please go ahead.
Hello. Am I audible?
Yes, sir. Please go ahead.
Yes. First of all, congratulations on a great set of numbers. Now, we have been growing at around 30% as we were guided. I just wanted to know at a broad level, how long do you think our 30% growth journey can continue? Do you think we are gradually reaching a saturation point and growth will gradually slow down in the next three, four years, or do you think we can continue at a broad level?
I think if you see the overall industry, our total industry is around INR 3,500 crore-INR 4,000 crore in that range. We have a potential to grow around INR 10,000 crore in the next four to five years. I feel we can really grow. Maybe after two years, maybe there will be some dip or some minor thing will happen. It will compensate for the next one or two years. It will compensate.
I feel we are in a very, very right time, right content. Really, we are in the best place, I feel. I strongly believe this business, we are the lowest in the, if you see, compared to the U.S., U.K., and all those markets. Let me tell you, subscription, people doubt if subscription will grow or what will happen to subscription, what we are again and again mentioning. In 2007, 2008, there was a business called CRBT, Caller Ring Back Tone. On that, when I call you, you have some tone, and I'm listening to that music. Actually, you are keeping that music for me. That is also only 30 seconds. That time, you were paying INR 30 as a subscription, and INR 15 you were paying for a download of any new song. If you download four songs in a month, you are paying another INR 15 per transaction.
If you download three songs, you are paying INR 45 plus INR 30, INR 75. At that time, mobile companies used to require INR 5,000 crore from subscription and INR 3,000 crore from downloading. There is the business. Music companies used to get only INR 700 crore-INR 800 crore. I think that time is coming back. People will subscribe, and it will be a big business. Indian consumer at that time also, everybody was feeling here, "[Foreign Language ]" It was from small towns: Lucknow, Kanpur, Pune, Sangli, Kolhapur, Solapur, a ll those small time people were paying. [Foreign language] . I think our business has a huge capability. INR 10,000 crore is becoming a very big. I feel, and it will happen, I feel.
Okay, sir. Okay. Thank you.
Thank you. We have our next question from the line of Pallavi Deshpande from Sameeksha Capital. Please go ahead.
Yes, sir. Thank you for taking my question. Just wanted to understand this TikTok deal for international and even the Sony Publishing for the international side. How much % of revenue can it be in three to five years for you, the international side?
Go ahead. I have to know what the deal is. Sushant, then you give guidance. Whatever.
With Sony Music, earlier, we had a limited deal. What we did in Q4 was adding YouTube. Sony Music Publishing is the number one publishing house in the world with more than 31% market share control. They are integrated with most of the societies and collection agents. With us adding YouTube into their kitty, we feel that our publishing revenues will drastically increase because we were not able to reach to a certain society. They will reach out. Also, Sony Music Publishing has better, what do you say, rates or negotiated rates with the global societies than what we could do ourselves. I feel overall we will have a good increase in the publishing revenues.
Pallavi, to give you a little bit, the first deal we did with SMP was two years back. Let's say we had recovered this advantage. Now in Q4, we have renewed this deal, given them YouTube, and the deal is four times bigger now for us. There is a lot of potential in terms of the revenue growth from this deal.
Right. Got that. My second question would be in regard to the movie side. You mentioned about some more big movies coming up. Which ones would that be for next year? The in-house.
In-house movies, we are only dealing with them for music. There is a movie called Malik that is coming in the last week of May or June. There is a Punjabi movie called Sarbala Ji that will also release at the same time. There is David Dhawan and Varun Dhawan . There is another movie, Sushant Satyavedi, Siddhant Satyavedi, and Wamika Gabbi, Jaya Bachchan. All those actors are there in the movie. There is a movie entry. We are negotiating with two or three other banners. There is a big Punjabi movie coming for music. Movie is releasing on 30 May, Saunkan Saunkne 2 . Anytime, we will be releasing music. We have quite a big film this year. We are talking to two or three other people. In totality, we will release around 12 films this year.
Okay. Right. And what was this number in FY 2020?
Sorry to interrupt. Can we please request you to rejoin the queue? There are several participants waiting for their turn.
Okay. Thank you.
Thank you so much. We have our next question from the line of Ben Smith from Cusana Capital. Please go ahead.
Hi. Am I audible?
Yeah.
Yeah. I was just wondering, could you please explain why you have decided that 25%-28% of revenue is an appropriate level of reinvestment into content? For example, why not say 35%, 40% plus? If this is a growing industry, you've got cash on the balance sheet, et cetera. Why not a higher level of reinvestment? Thank you.
See, it's a very competitive market. In India, we need two or two and a half, three companies in the content business. Particularly, I'm talking about Hindi music. We are already now five people fighting for the content. Everybody is really, all producers, all those people are really charging more than what they deserve. We are very cautious in our approach, and we don't want to—if you see the success ratios, they are only 10%, 15%. We want a INR 1,000 crore industry, maybe success ratios around INR 150 crore-INR 200 crore. We want to just focus on that amount. We want to have a maximum good titles from that category. If we succeeded for 60%, 70%, and acquiring those content, it will be enough for us.
If we're greedy and we go more than 30% or 20%, then it is a higher chance of getting bad products and a higher chance of doing many flops. We are very, very cautious and very careful. We feel this number is absolutely correct. INR 100 crore is big money. We can get really good content.
Okay. Thank you.
Thank you. Thank you. We have our next question from the line of Aditi Nawal from RSPN Ventures. Please go ahead.
Yeah. Hi. Good morning. Am I audible?
Yeah.
Yeah. We have just recently started tracking the company. I had a few questions regarding the company and the industry in general. First, I wanted to understand that you said that around 75% of your revenue is from digital sources. I just wanted to know, what is the proportion of revenue that you are getting from the music OTT players? If you could provide an excluding YouTube Music kind of a figure.
Sushant, can you please answer this?
Aditi, what you said is 75% is from digital, 25% non-digital. Within digital, YouTube is bigger for us. Then the OTT platform comes. That is Spotify, Amazon, Saavn, and Meta. We generally do not give a detailed breakup, but let's say YouTube would be the bigger, and then let's say Spotify and Meta would be there.
Okay. How many are the total subscribers in India for music, excluding YouTube Music? I'm guessing around 4%-5%. I mean, what is the percentage of paid subscribers in that if you could quantify that as well?
Let's say total music listeners in India, excluding YouTube, would be around 180 milion to 200 million. Paid subscribers, taxes count, would be roughly around 5%. In terms of revenue, that could be roughly around 10%.
Got it. In back of the calculation, if you've done the—let's say the two bigger players going behind the paywall completely, what could be the conversion in the free subscribers becoming paid subscribers? What proportion of free or premium subscribers could become paid subscribers?
This data point just will change from a platform to platform. YouTube might be having a different conversion ratio than Spotify. The platform can only reasonably be as labels will not have detailed data points on this.
Yeah. I mean, majorly, everybody in the industry is talking about the two bigger players like the Saavn and Spotify going behind the paywall. Any calculation done on that, let's say?
No, we don't have it. If you see the worldwide numbers, it's more on the paid side. If you see Spotify globally, I think they have more than 60% as paid subscribers or probably near to 70%, and the rest is free users. I think it should follow the same format. They know their business, right? They know how to push the consumers to the paywall.
Is it a fair assumption that you think? Just one last question, if that's okay. Just a proportion—what is the proportion of Spotify and JioSaavn in India? Like a market share.
We won't know the exact numbers, but Spotify claimed to have about 99 million users. And Saavn, I don't know the numbers to be honest. They have never publicly disclosed any numbers like this.
Got it. That would be it from my end. Thank you so much.
Thanks.
Thank you. We have our next question from the line of Karan from Keynote Capitals. Please go ahead.
Yeah. Hi. Thank you for the opportunity. Can you share what technological initiatives Tips has undertaken to, let's say, enhance analytics and optimize the monetization of music libraries? Apart from the passive revenue stream from YouTube and OTT, what proactive steps are being taken to push music discovery and engagement?
To answer your question in two parts, music discovery and engagement is a platform's job. It's not on the platform. It's their job, not ours. For us to engage with the consumer and make them discover our songs, we are doing a lot of marketing activities with the platform. That is one. On the technology side, we are upgrading and developing our own systems. It's called Pulse. We used to use a system called FUGA. Very soon, we will be displacing that and using our own system to distribute our content metadata with highly or newly tagged data about the song, which will enable us to get better into the algorithms. That's going on right now as a project. On the analytics side, we are far ahead in terms of the data that we get. We have data lakes of our own.
We have tons of servers in cloud. We do a lot of data processing, more than, I think, 10-15 GB data daily processing happens. That gives us a lot of data points insights, whatever the platform gives us. We are getting there. I think in the next six to eight months, we'll be far more better than what we are right now.
Understood. Can you share a bit more color on what specific metrics or performance indicators you guys track internally for growth in platform or specific streams? If you can share some specific metrics.
I can't share the specific metrics, but every platform has its metrics. On a video platform, there will be something which is, how much is the duration consumer watch? Or in the audio platform, it must be similar metric. So every platform has their own metric of measurement, and we will see it in a different way, and the platform will see it in a different way. I cannot disclose further because that would be our trade secret.
Okay. Thank you so much.
Thanks.
Thank you. We have our next question from the line of Siddharth Purohit in InvestQ Investments. Please go ahead.
Hello. Yeah. Just one clarification. Let's say when we invest in any content and we spend, let's say, INR 100, then normally monetization will be print through it, and we must be getting the revenue in the first year itself, majority of it. What % normally do we see coming in the first year, and how has that number normally been flowing in your case in the subsequent years?
We can't give you that exactly. As we mentioned earlier, key target, key means you should recover our revenue in four to five years' time.
Is it fair to assume that at least half of the potential revenue will be monetized in the first year?
It's depending upon title to title basis. Sometimes it happens, sometimes it won't happen. We calculate as a whole, whatever we invest in this year, we must overall recover in four to five years' time.
Okay.
One more just clarification. The cost per song, when I calculate based on the number of songs released, has gone up substantially compared to last year and particularly this quarter. Will it be the new trend that probably the content cost per unit will be higher, and the absolute number of releases will not be the benchmark to check the kind of potential revenue?
As mentioned earlier, we are going for quality and film music, so it will be more expensive. Quality over quantity.
Okay. Got it.
Okay. Thank you. That's from my side. Thanks.
Thanks.
Thank you. We have a next question from the line of Lokesh Aggarwal, our shareholder. Please go ahead.
Hello?
Yeah.
Thank you so much for giving the opportunity, and congratulations for the wonderful results of 2025. I'm really a big fan of your business. My first question is, see, I read an article last month in Economic Times that live show industry in India is expected to grow by over 18% in the next couple of years. My question is, how much percentage of revenue of ours is coming from live shows? Are we planning to increase that in the next couple of years? Are we also planning to enter directly organizing the live shows where our own music can be used?
No, we don't have a—we don't do that business. Maybe immediately we don't have any plans, but maybe in future we consider. At present, we don't have any plan.
Okay. How much percentage of revenue is coming from live show, and are we trying to increase it?
For music revenue, yes, we collect a lot of public performance wherever it happens. We are getting money. Yes.
Okay. Not a specific number you can mention.
We can't mention that, please.
Okay. I understand. I understand. Okay, sir. Okay. Thank you so much. That was my only question. Thank you.
Thank you. We have our next question from the line of Jayesh Shah from Om Portfolio Equity Research. Please go ahead.
Hi. Thanks for the opportunity. I just have one clarification. In terms of content cost per unit, while you are saying it's going up, is it true that the content cost for non-Bollywood music is also going up? Because what I noticed is that the mix for non-Bollywood music is actually increasing in the overall pie.
I feel ultimately Bollywood will be the game. Our focus is on that. This year also, we are doing a few good artists. If we have a bigger artist, we have to pay more, and the cost will increase, which we don't mind. If we are getting quality, we don't mind paying more. That's our plan this year.
Oh, I see. In your case, it will be Bollywood music will go up and with all the senior artists.
Yes.
Okay. Secondly, when you talk about acquiring or releasing, say, 100-125 songs in a year, what is the industry number? I am just trying to get some idea on the incremental market share.
They say here around 1,000 films released every year in all regional languages. Calculate around 5,000 plus another 5,000-7,000. 10,000-12,000 works releasing every year.
Okay. Okay. Thanks a lot and best of luck.
Thank you.
Thank you. We have our next question from the line of Vaibhav Mule from YES Securities. Please go ahead.
Good afternoon. Congratulations on a very good set of numbers. Just a couple of questions on the Warner deal, first of all. What is the tranche amount received in April, and what will be received in October 2025?
Can't give you the exact number, but it's two tranches. Whatever deal is online happening properly, can't reveal the number, please.
Okay. For the last year then, compared to the advance that you had received, what was the actual revenue booked? Have we recovered all the advances and revenue has exceeded?
No, no, no. We have not recovered. Sushant, please clarify this.
Let's say we have booked the revenue basis of actual consumption, and let's say the recovery of advance would be happening on a gradual basis.
All right. Recovery will happen over the coming year, but at a period of the. Recovery will be more higher than the revenue recognition. Sorry?
Yes. Recovery would happen over the period of the contract.
All right. Can you just elaborate more on the current monetization of short format? What was the contribution of revenue, and where do we expect over the next two years?
Can't give you exact number. The world is very competitive, so please bear with us. We hope it will be a very, very huge number.
All right. Coming to the non-digital part, sir, about your licensing and Sync deal segment, how has been the performance of licensing segment? Especially, I wanted to know about the current penetration at the industry level, and where the penetration can go to over the next two, three years' period? On the Sync deal side, what are the new deals that have been done, or what kind of pipeline is there for Sync deals as well?
so many questions. One question is already greater. Overall, we are doing for the last few years, we have seen we are gradually increasing our revenue from both our businesses, non-digital and digital. 75%, 25%. That is happening, and we are very happy with that. I think even going further future, it will happen similarly.
All right. All right, sir. That's it from my side. Thank you so much.
Thank you. We have our next question from the line of Yash Poddar from Viansh Ventures. Please go ahead.
Hi. I'm Audible.
Yeah.
Yeah. Hi. I just had a couple of questions related to the strategy behind the increased per content cost. Now, I'm trying to make a sort of strategic sense on this. Given that the total, say, volume of content has reduced and the per content cost has gone up, and you've already mentioned that the focus is more on the quality side, I'm trying to understand that does this directly correlate to the content having a higher probability of being hit or having a high level of virality, and does a higher per content cost ensure that the specific acquisition will play out much better than the current, say, library that we have? Is that the thought process behind it?
Absolutely. Yes.
Right. If you can just maybe help explain what are the elements here that will ensure for us that the higher cost of acquisition will create a bigger virality, is it only a factor of channel, or is it a factor of certain metrics that you are trying to achieve through this? If you can just help us understand better.
Yesh, can't do that because please understand, it's a competition world. How can we open our strategy in the open forum? Can't do that, please.
Sure. On the other side, my question was that from the sense of going forward as a product portfolio, for us, is this going to be a continued trend that we are going to be focusing more and more on the quality side, and we want to reduce the failure rate of content? Is that the thought process, or the thought process is to, say, as a company, further on strategy-wise, integrate more libraries and focus on the volume element? If you can just give a sense of understanding.
Absolutely. Our focus is on getting more hits. From when music business was down from year 2003 to 2015, 2016, we have focused on a less number of songs, and we had a 85%-90% of success ratio. We are somewhere going back to zone where we reduce the number of songs, but we want a quality, maybe 50% of our success ratio should be there. That is our target, you can say.
Right. Right. And just a corollary question to that, is the content that does not become necessarily a hit as per our standard, what is the kind of monetization or, let's say, a one-time monetization or a continued amount that we are able to salvage from it just to understand how the business looks?
I think I mentioned earlier our target is to recover whatever we invest in the next four to five years' time. That will continue. You know we are the only company which writes off the content cost in the same quarter as the practice we are doing since the inception of the company.
Right. Okay. Got it. Yeah. This is helpful. Thank you so much.
Thank you.
Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, that would be the last question for today. I now hand over to Ms. Ayushi Gupta for closing comments. Over to you, ma'am.
Content call today. Also, thanks to all the participants. If you have any queries, please feel free to contact us. We are MUFG Intime India Private Limited, Investor Relation Advisors to Tips Music Limited. Thank you so much.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you. On behalf of Tips Music Limited, that concludes this conference. Thank you for joining us, and you may now disconnect your lines.
Thank you. Thank you.