Competition Analysis Template, India Indie Music
Purpose: To understand where your artist sits relative to comparable artists in the Indian independent music ecosystem. Run this analysis when signing a new artist and every 6 months. Do not use this to copy other artists, use it to find the gap.
Section 1: Identify Comparables
Select 5 artists who are in the same genre/language/audience as your artist and at a similar or slightly more advanced career stage. These are not aspirational superstars, they are practical benchmarks.
Why these five? [One sentence on your selection rationale]
Section 2: Streaming Presence
Section 3: Social Media Presence
How to calculate engagement rate: (Average likes + comments per post) / Followers x 100. Above 3% is healthy for Instagram.
Section 4: Live Presence
Section 5: Releases and Output
Section 6: Brand and Partnerships
Section 7: Press and Media Coverage
Section 8: the Gap Analysis
Where does your artist lead the comparables? [Be honest. If there is no area where they lead, that is important to know.]
Where does your artist trail the comparables? [Again, be specific. Vague answers like "social media presence" are not useful. "Instagram engagement rate is 1.2% vs Comp 1's 4.7% despite similar follower counts" is useful.]
What opportunity exists that none of the comparables are exploiting? [This is the most important question. Look for a city, a language, a genre blend, a content format, a partnership category that is wide open.]
What is the one thing your artist could do in the next 90 days that would close the biggest gap?
Section 9: Strategic Implications
Free to use · Part of the Indie Music India toolkit · Updated September 2026