Why Arijit Singh’s retirement makes total sense: Exploitative Bollywood, and a fanbase bigger than Taylor Swift

ALSO READ: ‘I got bored’: Arijit Singh reveals the real reasons behind quitting Bollywood playback singing, explains what’s next

Independent music has always been around. For the most part, it lay around like an old dragon who had been waiting for its chance to fly again. Social media took out the proverbial rock from in front of the dragon and allowed it to soar on its wings. Now there are talented, unique and successful Indian artists in almost every genre, with millions waiting in the pipeline. The nature of the industry has changed, with the audience finally moving towards albums and projects that have a single idea or story behind them.

This is the perfect time for Arijit to move into this space and to give himself the time to evolve. Also, he isn’t leaving music; he wouldn’t. I mean, look at any clip or photo of Arijit singing on stage — he loves this… And him deciding to take a step back from playback singing is proof that he wants his songs to be remembered only as Arijit Singh songs.

The decision has also come at a time when Hindi film music industry has got a reputation about lacking in creativity and being exploitative. While Arijit — among the highest-paid singers of his generation — may be shielded from it to some extent, he had earlier raised a question mark on how it works. “This entire business is conducted on the back of artists. An artist is not as practical as a businessman. But since the business depends on the artist’s work, if everyone feels it’s not fair, then something is wrong. They should be clear about certain things. Either pay fairly for the work being done or don’t assign work at all. There are many people who don’t get paid in proportion to the work they put in. Everything is negotiated at the end of the day,” he had said in the Music Podcast a few years ago, pointing out how all deals are verbal, and few of them are honoured.

“It’s mostly a verbal discussion. One thing is discussed, the work becomes something else, and the payment turns into something entirely different.”

There is hardly anything more important for a 21st-century musician than to put out their own music, on their own terms, and own the rights to their work. You can never do that while singing for films, and if you could, we wouldn’t be getting 10 billion Salim-Sulaiman concerts every year. Singers and composers have already given up on earning money just through film — Arijit just took it one step further.

ALSO READ: Gandhi Talks’ Sunhari Kirne: AR Rahman and Arijit Singh collaborate for a safe, soothing and simple song 

To be fair, Arijit has built a space for himself which is unlike anyone else, and I am not saying that in a poetic sense. Just have one look at the numbers, and they will tell you the story of a man who has transcended the reach of films. He is the most followed artist on Spotify, with 171 million followers and 58 million monthly listeners. That is almost 21 million more than Taylor Swift, which, if anyone is well-versed with her fans, is downright insane. For 7 years running, Arijit has been the top streamed artist of the country.

If and when Arijit finally decides to release a single or an album of his own, it will be an extremely pivotal moment for Indian music. An artist of his size deciding to take the reins in his own hand is a scary picture for any kind of mediocrity that was enjoying its time in the independent spotlight. Dhruvank Vaidya, the Spotify India Head of Music and Podcast, earlier told SCREEN that “India primarily used to be a very film-music-first industry, and for the longest time that was the genre that dominated. But for the last 5 years we have seen artist-first music grow a lot. Recently an EY report suggested that 5 years ago almost 80% of the music being consumed was from films, and now that has gone down to 60%, with the remaining being artist first.”

With numbers like that, it’s no wonder that Arijit wants to go out there on his own. No one could have guessed 5 years ago that a film like Dhurandhar, which has earned over Rs 1200 crore worldwide, would have an Indian rapper in its title track. These aren’t just signs that a change is coming; this is a brutal slap across the face of the industry, a slap which has forced them to wake up and realise the kind of talent this country possesses.

Arijit’s first project has the potential to change the way Indian music is perceived (no pressure). For a lot of the outside world, it will be just an album. But for every fan who knows Arijit’s discography, it will translate as a man taking charge of his success and telling the world that the playback singing crown just isn’t enough; he wants more.