When I started New Series Music, the idea of a Pahari folk song reaching a listener in Mumbai — let alone London or Toronto — seemed almost impossible. Regional music was, by definition, local. It was made for the people of a specific valley or district, in their language, about their lives. It was beautiful, but its audience was small and geographically contained.
That has changed completely in the past decade, and the pace of change is accelerating.
The Streaming Revolution
The arrival of YouTube, followed by Spotify, JioSaavn, and other streaming platforms, has been transformative for regional Indian music. For the first time, a singer from a village in Chamba could record a song and have it heard by anyone with an internet connection anywhere in the world — for free, immediately, without the need for a distributor or a label deal with a major company.
This democratisation of distribution has been enormously beneficial for music like ours. Pahari and Dogri folk songs that would once have been heard only at local festivals are now accumulating millions of streams on YouTube. Diaspora communities in the UK, Canada, and the United States are discovering the music of their grandparents' homeland. Younger people who grew up speaking Hindi or English as their primary language are finding their roots through regional music.
Social Media and Community Building
Social media has amplified this effect even further. When we share a new song on Facebook, WhatsApp, or Instagram, it does not just reach our direct followers — it ripples outward through communities of people who share a connection to the region. A wedding song shared in one WhatsApp group gets forwarded to five others. A song about the Ravi river gets shared among the Himachali diaspora in Europe.
This organic, community-driven sharing is one of the most powerful forces in regional music today. It does not require advertising budgets or promotional campaigns. It requires only that the music is good enough to make people want to share it.
The Challenge of Authenticity
With greater reach comes a new responsibility. When regional music was purely local, authenticity was guaranteed by the community — listeners knew instinctively whether a song was genuine or a poor imitation. As the audience grows beyond those who share the cultural context, the risk of superficial or exploitative productions increases.
At New Series Music, we try to guard against this by working only with artists who have a genuine connection to the music they are performing, and by ensuring that our productions respect the musical traditions they draw on. We are not trying to make Pahari folk sound like Bollywood. We are trying to make it sound like the best version of itself.
The Future
I am optimistic about the future of regional Indian music in the digital age. The combination of increased distribution reach, growing cultural pride, and a younger generation that is more interested in its roots than any previous generation gives me confidence that music like ours will continue to find new listeners and new champions.
The challenge for platforms like New Series Music is to grow thoughtfully — to expand our reach without losing the authenticity and community connection that makes what we do valuable. That is the balance we work to maintain every day.