Believe, a leading digital music company, expands its presence in the Indian market with the acquisition of Think Music, a South Indian music label.
With the acquisition of Think Music, Believe is further strengthening its position in India by acquiring one of the leading independent companies of original Tamil soundtracks.
Founded in 2007 by Swaroop Reddy and Kiran Reddy, Think Music is known ‘for owning for perpetuity a dynamic catalogue consisting of popular film, non-film and independent soundtracks including some of the biggest and marquee albums of Tamil Cinema’. The two founders also established South India’s largest premium cinema exhibitor SPI Cinemas before divesting it to PVR, India’s largest multiplex chain in 2018.
In addition to acquiring and distributing soundtracks, Think Music is also a pioneer in promoting and introducing young talent to the music industry, having successfully launched over 40 debut composers, including Santhosh Narayanan, Ghibran and Hiphop Tamizha to name a few.
Think Music and Believe have been commercial partners on a subset of the company’s catalogue. This acquisition will allow Think Music to accelerate the growth and monetisation of its whole catalogue by leveraging Believe’s digital-first approach; back catalogue optimisation know-how and technological expertise. Think Music will also be able to leverage Believe’s financial support to expand further its soundtrack acquisition strategy.
The combination of Think Music’s YouTube channel (with 11 million subscribers) and Believe’s YouTube channels will provide artists with a launchpad to an audience of more than 60 million YouTube subscribers, a reach of about 25% of YouTube’s monthly active users in India.
In addition, Think Music will benefit from Believe’s innovative technologies and expertise to drive video audience development and monetisation in short-form video format. Believe was the first global company to sign a deal with TikTok and an early beta tester of YouTube shorts in India before its international roll-out.
Believe acquires control of Think Music with an initial 76% stake valued at €13 million. The current management team led by Swaroop Reddy, will remain in place and continue building the catalogue under Think Music Label while overseeing the backend integration.
“We are very excited to extend our relationship with Believe. Believe’s wide array of innovative, digital first solutions combined with Think Music’s relentless focus on providing the best platform to film, non-film and independent artists soundtracks, will create significant value for all stakeholders,” said Swaroop Reddy, Founder of Think Music
“I am delighted to associate Believe with Think Music the leading South Indian film soundtrack label, founded and run by Swaroop Reddy and his brother, two talented entrepreneurs with a high reputation in the local music and movie industry. I am confident that we will work together to accelerate Think Music digital growth and provides artists with shared expertise and innovation,” said Vivek Raina, Managing Director of Believe India
Since 2013, Believe India has become a leading player in the Indian digital music market with offices in seven regions and 171 employees through organic growth and acquisitions. The Group now operates the full range of solutions from TuneCore to Artist Services to develop local independent artists in one of the world’s fastest growing recorded music market (expected to become a top 10 market globally by 2027).
Believe has been an early mover into the original soundtrack market, India’s largest digital music market segment, providing digital go-to-market solutions to Bollywood music labels. One of the key milestones of Believe’s strategy was the acquisition of Venus in 2019 (renamed Ishtar in 2021) which encompasses one of the largest catalogues of original Hindi film music.
Check out Think Music here