Brands
Spotify turns up the volume on I-Pop icons live
MUMBAI: Pop goes India, and Spotify just gave it a stage to match. On November 7, Mumbai pulsed to the beat of Spotify I-Pop Icons Live, the streaming giant’s first-ever live celebration of India’s thriving pop scene. Featuring electric performances by King, Armaan Malik, Jonita Gandhi, Aditya Rikhari, Kushagra, Hansika Pareek and Sanju Rathod, the night marked a defining moment for I-Pop’s growing cultural footprint.
I-Pop, short for Indian Pop, has rapidly become one of Spotify’s most streamed genres, spanning languages, moods and borders. Aditya Rikhari’s “Sahiba” currently rules the Spotify weekly top songs India chart, while twelve of the top twenty tracks are I-Pop hits, proof that the genre has officially gone mainstream.
Since launching I-Pop Icons in 2024, Spotify has seen over 4 lakh followers tune in, with companion playlists like I-Pop rising, I-Pop chill and I-Pop Party creating a full-fledged sonic universe for fans.
“Over the last few years, we’ve seen the consumption of I-Pop increase significantly,” said Spotify India head of music and podcast Dhruvank Vaidya. “With I-Pop Icons Live, we’re not just curating playlists, we’re building a movement that connects artists and their biggest fans.”
The artists lighting up the stage are already household names. King’s Maan Meri Jaan was Spotify India’s most-streamed song of 2023; Armaan Malik, with over 23 million followers, continues to bridge global and Indian pop; while Jonita Gandhi and Aditya Rikhari are defining the new sound of urban India. Rising stars like Hansika Pareek, Kushagra and Sanju Rathod added fresh flavour, with Marathi pop’s breakout anthem Gulabi Sadi creating history as the first in its language to cross 100 million streams.
As the lights dimmed and the beats lingered, one thing was clear, I-Pop isn’t just India’s next big sound. It’s already here, loud, proud and streaming on repeat.
Brands
LINC Limited appoints Hitesh Singla as head of marketing
The writing instruments giant has hired Hitesh Singla as head of marketing, betting on his two decades of brand-building firepower to ink a bolder consumer story
KOLKATA: LINC Limited, the Kolkata-based writing instruments manufacturer with a footprint spanning more than 50 countries, has appointed Hitesh Singla as its head of marketing, a hire that signals the company’s intent to fight harder for consumer attention in one of India’s most fiercely contested stationery categories.
Singla arrives with over two decades of marketing muscle behind him, having built, revived and scaled brands across consumer durables, personal care, healthcare, retail and houseware. His CV reads like a tour of Indian and global brand management: he introduced and grew Stabilo, UHU and Rapid in the Indian market, helped revive product categories for Revlon, and most recently served as head of marketing at KAI India, where he sharpened the brand’s presence in personal grooming and houseware.
Before KAI, Singla held leadership roles at Godrej & Boyce and the Avantha Group, among others, organisations where scale, complexity and consumer diversity are non-negotiable realities.
At LINC, he will own the company’s end-to-end marketing strategy: brand equity, integrated campaigns and consumer engagement, all calibrated to a market that is shifting fast. His approach blends data-driven insight with what he calls creative storytelling, precisely the kind of bilingual fluency that legacy brands need when nostalgia alone will no longer do the heavy lifting.
“LINC Limited holds a strong legacy in the writing instruments category,” said Singla, “and I look forward to building on this foundation to further strengthen its brand relevance in a rapidly evolving market. The focus will be on driving sharper consumer insights, innovation-led marketing, and creating deeper engagement across touchpoints.”
An alumnus of Punjab University with a master’s degree in international business, Singla is said to be as comfortable with cultures, languages and history as he is with a campaign brief, a disposition that may serve him well as LINC pushes deeper into global markets.
For a company that already sells pens across five continents, the real challenge now is making consumers care which pen they pick up. Singla’s job is to make sure it is a LINC.
