Hoopr partners with IPRS to strengthen music royalty ecosystem in India

MUMBAI: Hoopr – India’s first music licensing platform, announced a strategic partnership with the Indian Performing Rights Society (IPRS), the leading copyright society for songwriter’s, composers, and publishers. This partnership aims to ensure proper, timely, and transparent royalty payments to music creators, and publishers whose work is licensed in branded and digital content via Hoopr’s microsync-licensing platform, hooprsmash.com.

At a time when India’s music industry is suffering from an estimated annual revenue loss of Rs 8,000–10,000 crore in unearned royalties, this initiative is a step forward towards building an equitable ecosystem for artists. Hoopr Smash, now hosts over 18,500 tracks including Bollywood, indie, and regional music on its online platform. With brands and content creators generating over a million content pieces daily, the need for ethical licensing and monetization is beyond critical. Over the last 2 years, Hoopr has fortified its position in the music licensing industry using its tech platform to soundtrack 125+ brands and 18,000+ creators. Today, the platform hosts 21 label partners, 380+ artists, which positions Hoopr uniquely from a music supply and distribution perspective.

Hoopr’s partnership with IPRS marks a progressive step toward strengthening micro-sync licensing as a structured and scalable revenue stream for artists. This collaboration enables over 18,000 IPRS-registered members to benefit from structured monetisation opportunities in the fast-growing digital content space. By streamlining royalty disbursement through a tech-enabled process, the partnership aims to enhance transparency and timeliness — supporting creators more effectively in today’s fragmented content economy. This initiative also aligns with IPRS’s recent achievement of crossing Rs 700 crore in royalty collections, underscoring a shared commitment to copyright compliance and improved artist remuneration across the industry.

Rakesh Nigam, CEO of IPRS, said: “This partnership opens new avenues of revenue for Owners Publishers by making music available for licensing to be used legitimately in brand storytelling, along with authors/creators, who will also benefit economically by such usage. For generations, music has added emotional depth to brand communication. Today, by bridging creativity with commercial possibilities, we are not only empowering owners/creators but also helping brands connect more meaningfully with their audiences—through music that is licensed, respected, and fairly rewarded.”

Gaurav Dagaonkar, Co-Founder & CEO of Hoopr, said: “Hoopr was created with a vision to make music licensing accessible, transparent, and equitable for all stakeholders. In India’s fast-growing creator economy, where music drives engagement, our partnership with IPRS bridges the compensation gap between content creators, artists, and music labels. Through this partnership with Indian Performing Rights Society (IPRS), we are establishing a new standard of how digital platforms can contribute to the music ecosystem, through accountability of royalties in our licensing model. This is a long-overdue structural correction, and we’re proud to lead it.”

Meghna Mittal, Co-Founder of Hoopr, added: “The challenge with music licensing was never just about access; it is also about compliance and clarity. Our proprietary tech which powers Hoopr Smash,  ensures that every licensed track is tracked, reported, and attributed to the rightful rights holder. This partnership is especially significant given Hoopr’s tech and platform-led digital payments system, built to align with IPRS’s backend infrastructure for seamless royalty disbursement to artists and labels. It empowers creators, especially regional and independent ones, to concentrate on their art with the assurance that their rights are being respected and compensated.”

By embedding structured royalty mechanisms into the digital licensing process, this partnership creates a new way of thinking about how India’s rapidly developing content economy can better serve the creative backbone of its economy. As regional music gains momentum and demand for culturally rooted soundtracks rises, initiatives like this are vital to ensure that artists, composers, and rights holders are not left behind in the monetization cycle. Furthermore, this also reflects IPRS Chairman Javed Akhtar’s long-standing commitment to ensuring that Indian music creators receive fair recognition and reward for their contributions across all digital platforms.