Trailblazers is an MBW interview series that turns the spotlight on music entrepreneurs with the potential to become the global business power players of tomorrow. This time, we speak to, Abhi Kanakadandila, CEO of Los Angeles-based record label D36, which focuses on music from South Asia and its diaspora. Trailblazers is supported by TuneCore.
South Asia is poised to be one of the global music business’s key creative and commercial hotspots.
In March, Spotify revealed that global consumption of music from India jumped by more than 2,000% on its platform between 2018 and 2023.
In 2023 alone, global consumption of music from India jumped 85% YoY, the music streaming service said.
We’ve also previously reported on Luminate stats showing that India saw the biggest YoY increase in total annual on-demand music streams of any nation last year – and it could become the world’s biggest music streaming market by volume in 2024.
You can also see the impact that artists from India are having on YouTube. The platform’s Daily Global Music video chart is dominated by artists from India, with 12 of the Top 20 most popular music videos on the platform as of June 16 released by artists from India specifically.
On the other side of the world, in Los Angeles, record label D36 was launched in 2022 with the goal of breaking music from South Asia and its global diaspora.
D36 was founded by Abhi Kanakadandila (CEO) and Abdullah Ahmad (GM). Kanakadandila grew up in St. Louis and says he “became obsessed” with music “around the time [Nelly’s] Country Grammar was the biggest album on the planet”.
“I went to college in New York and got to experience the energy of the blog era that was reimagining the way we discovered new artists,” he says. “I spent most of my time making music, hitting up shows/cyphers, and watching the industry transition to digital in real time.”
Kanakadandila tells us that he “looked up to artists” like M.I.A & Jai Paul at the time “who were able to break through in very real, albeit different ways” but notes that “overall South Asian talent at the upper echelons was sparse”.
“There weren’t many labels that were focused on our diaspora talent when we launched.”
D36’s CEO says that he has traveled to India “almost yearly” with his family since he was a child. “Every time we’d head back, I’d find friends changing the way they consumed music — first in an openness to international acts and then a real affinity for this homegrown artist culture that felt like it was the future,” he says.
“When I moved to LA in 2015, most of my conversations with the South Asian creative scene revolved around our absence from the music landscape, while we saw many other cultures increasingly able to reach wider audiences.”
By the time Kanakadandila was in his late twenties, he says a question at the top of his mind was: “Why Not Us?”
“[It was] all I could think about and started the journey towards building D36,” he says.
Commenting on his ambitions for D36 when he launched the company, Kanakadandila says that he wanted to establish “real cultural infrastructure with expertise and resources for South Asian music”.
He adds: “There weren’t many labels that were focused on our diaspora talent when we launched, and we put out some special music with domestic artists we really believe in.”
The label scored a global hit in 2023 with a ZAYN-featured remix of Pakistani indie band AUR’s regional hit Tu hai kahan.Cumulative streaming for the AUR record across the original version and Zayn remix is approximately half a billion globally.
D36’s roster also includes artists like Ethan Fields, and Rahul.
Beyond recorded music, D36 says that it has also been building a live music infrastructure in the US, while also developing select music related projects for film & TV (scripted and unscripted). The label also recently launched a JV with Sony Music to break artists from South Asia and its diaspora.
Here Kanakadandila tells us more about the label and trends he’s seeing in the market…
What were your ambitions for the label when you launched it in 2022?
We knew we had to put in the work to really understand (or commit to understand) modern culture on the ground in South Asia to reflect the goal of being a truly global platform.
Too often for a lot of us based in the US pushing “South Asian Culture” is really about pushing “Diaspora Culture” – which usually ignores experiences of over a billion people making amazing art in the actual region.
So whether we’re building on the recorded side or throwing shows we want D36 to be reflective of what’s happening around the world, not just our little corner of it.
Could you tell us about the D36 team and their background?
We’re a tight-knit company, and each person brings something different to the table. The common thread is that everyone has been involved with major artists who have shifted culture.
On the A&R side, my Co-Founder and GM Abdullah Ahmad has worked across the spectrum, from massive hip-hop acts like Young Thug/Kevin Gates to emerging indie stars like Jelani Aryeh & brings over 15 years of industry experience.
Affan Arif worked with Ella Mai through her insane Grammy run and managed artists like Noname & Mick Jenkins.
Daniel Ahmed is already an established producer and adds co-production on a lot of the records we put out. On creative and marketing, Siya Bahal has worked on huge video projects for Beyonce & Travis Scott and Hannah Sugano booked shows at USC & has a deep understanding of new age digital.
Zooming out, each member has seen the superstar journey up close in some capacity, and now we get to apply that expertise to artists in our own community across the globe.
What have been the biggest highlights so far?
Definitely building relationships in South Asia and feeling the pulse on the ground when you’re out there.
We’re very much at the epicenter of what’s been happening in the diaspora, but when you spend time overseas going to shows, meeting fans, and hearing artists talk about global aspirations it’s clear we’ve barely scratched the surface of where this is heading.
D36 recently released a remix of Pakistani indie act AUR’s hit Tu Hai Kahan (feat. ZAYN) – tell us about the strategy behind the release?
When you hear the original record it’s undeniably special and we felt that it deserved a global moment. ZAYN sent his version back and it was one of the quickest releases we’ve ever turned around, which is a testament to how much he cared about this record – it was personal. Release-wise we decided to drop it from the sky and got to see the internet light on fire.
The most amazing part was that the remix became a gateway to discussing this incredible new wave of music coming out of Pakistan. Morning Edition on NPR did this great piece about setting the stage for more music emerging from the region.
So beyond just the individual track, it was a way to tell the world that there’s something bigger going on in contemporary music here – a movement that’s coming. That macro story is super important to keep hitting home to wider audiences if we want to build something sustainable.
What trends are you seeing in the market that we should know about?
When folks in the West look at unfamiliar markets, they assume they can understand whole parts of the world through a few streaming data points. This leads to the framework that Western audiences are fragmented and diverse, but international markets are still monocultures.
“There are several vibrant multi-genre artist communities popping up in major cities.”
The reality on the ground, like in any region, is more complex: regional hip hop is back in a major way, Indie records are going No.1, the electronic scene is insane, film music ebbs and flows – the industry is just as much of the wild west as the US or the UK. Context matters.
On the diaspora side, there are several vibrant multi-genre artist communities popping up in major cities and there’s been a renaissance around dance culture that feels interconnected globally.
You have recently signed a global JV with Sony Music – what are your plans and ambitions for the venture?
More than any other community, our industry operates in regional silos and different markets don’t do a good job of talking to each other. We always have discussions on why South Asian music hasn’t broken in the US like Latin/Korean, but if you survey the industry stateside you’ll see tons of management companies, strategic partners, and even full arms of major labels specifically dedicated to those cultures.
I don’t believe movements just trickle across borders through osmosis – it takes active participation. With this global JV we can have dozens of people spread across the globe pushing South Asian music in parallel, which for our community has never happened in a meaningful way. It’s been a major missing piece and this partnership is a first step of addressing it.
What made Sony Music an attractive partner to work with on this JV?
It was alignment on the cultural impact we could have if we were successful over the next 5, 10, and 20 years. Shridhar Subramanian (who serves as President of Sony Asia & Middle East) has seen the market evolve rapidly since Sony was the first international major to launch in India in the late-90s, and that expertise is invaluable as we develop a view on where culture’s headed in tandem.
Beyond vision, it allows us to have dedicated resources in both the West and South Asia to achieve the goals we set with artists. The more compelling an artist’s regional story is, the more compelling their international story will be, and artists don’t have to sacrifice one for the other when working with D36.
What do you look for in the artists that you work with?
A willingness to think global early and full ownership of their artist story and brand from the onset. In certain markets where the shadow of the film industry is so strong, a lot of times artists cede creative ownership piecemeal throughout their careers.
When entering new markets the artist’s creative story is as important as the records, so we look to work with teams that have been committed to building their own world from day one.
What advice would you give aspiring label founders?
Try to get some experience building something in the music business from the ground floor.
There’s value in being at a big machine and taking advantage of those resources, but seeing the founder/startup journey before helps you understand a lot more about what it’ll take to be successful on your own.
If there was one thing you could change about the music business what would it be and why?
As it relates to the South Asian music business, every organization (labels, managers, artists) should have a dedicated (not fractional) team who understands the culture based in the US pushing the narrative at the highest levels.
MBW reported that Latin music generated $1.4 billion in just US revenue last year, which is over 5 times the revenue generated by the entire Indian market in 2023.
That’s a direct result of decades of actively investing in the market and folks on the ground across the ecosystem – labels, managers, promoters – advocating for the music.
The trickle-down effect on those regions has been sustained investment and an artist economy that shows no signs of slowing down. Simply put, as soon as you prove your community’s music can transcend borders you immediately change the scale at which your culture can operate over the long term.
Everyone I’ve met in the industry has tremendous confidence in the talent that exists in this new era of South Asian music. As a collective, our No.1 priority should be opening the floodgates internationally. Given the realities of streaming economics in Asia, it’s the only thing that can produce the step function change in market size and visibility that we care so deeply about. We should be working across the aisle and collaborating to make it happen.
