IPRS distributed Rs 628.3 crore in royalties in FY 2025-26, and its own rulebook explains why a song earning under 25 US cents never gets its own line.
IPRS means the Indian Performing Right Society, the collective management organisation that licenses the composition side of Indian music. The lyric and the melody, not the recording your distributor delivers.
Its annual report for FY 2025-26, signed by chairman Javed Akhtar on 17 August 2026, is the most detailed picture the Indian publishing market has published. The distribution rules that sit behind it are the more useful document.
Where the money came from, and how much moved
The headline figures from the report:
- Collections of Rs 804.5 crore, up 8.5 percent from Rs 741.6 crore.
- Net legal and administration expenses of Rs 43.9 crore, roughly 5.5 percent of gross, leaving a distributable value of Rs 760.7 crore.
- Rs 628.3 crore actually paid out, to more than 13,700 members. The CEO letter counts 23,943 members in total.
- 87 distribution cycles executed, up from 60 the year before.
- Streaming is 72 percent of income at Rs 578 crore. Public performance is 19 percent at Rs 150.8 crore, up from Rs 101.7 crore. Television moved from Rs 16.5 crore to Rs 52.1 crore. Foreign societies sent Rs 16.3 crore.
CISAC, the global confederation of authors’ societies, ranked IPRS fourth in Asia-Pacific by revenue in its 2025 report. Music Ally covered the 42 percent jump that got it there.
The 25 cent line
IPRS sets up a separate pool for each digital service and matches the logs it receives. Then it applies a floor.
The distribution rules filed with the 56th AGM notice state it plainly: songs are taken for distribution where the song value is “above 25 US$ cents as cut-off amount.” Anything below that is “not considered,” and the accrued value is redistributed pro rata across the songs that cleared the line.
That is the publishing-layer version of the recording-side thresholds we covered in Spotify’s 1,000-stream pay line. Same shape, different rightsholder, and it applies per service pool per distribution period.
Fragmentation is what actually kills a payout
The cut-off is measured on song value, so a work registered twice with split shares is valued twice, in smaller pieces. Two half-registrations at 20 cents each disappear where one clean registration at 40 cents pays.
Clean ISWC and writer-share data at the point of delivery is not administrative hygiene here. It is the difference between clearing the floor and subsidising someone else’s catalogue.
Four windows, and a fiscal-year lag
Distributions run a minimum of four times a year, in June, September, December and March, against revenue collected in the previous Indian fiscal year running 1 April to 31 March. Website and OTT pools are paid quarterly or once a year, depending on when logs arrive.
For digital income that means the gap between a stream in India and a composition payment can run well past twelve months.
Three years to claim, one year before the money moves
Unidentified usages go into a special account and members have three years to claim them. But the value of unclaimed uses is added back to the distribution pool after one year and redistributed pro rata over identified repertoire.
Claim in year two and you are paid from the current pool, not the one your song actually earned in. Non-member shares are held for a maximum of three years, then returned to the pool entirely.
What this means outside India
Your distributor collects the recording royalty from JioSaavn, Spotify India, Gaana and YouTube. The composition share of those same Indian streams runs through IPRS and reaches you only through membership or a reciprocal agreement with your home society. That is the Rs 16.3 crore line.
If you are building an India strategy on the 178 million streamers and 14.4 million payers in that market, register the works before you chase the volume. Delivery mechanics are covered in our guide to distribution platforms for Indian artists and labels.
