The IPL season has begun and with it, a question making its way through the legal and marketing departments of some of India's biggest brands: is our music licensed? For Chennai Super Kings, one of the tournament's most commercially active franchises, the cost of not asking that question arrived in the form of a legal notice from Sun TV, triggered by the unauthorised use of music from the Rajinikanth films Jailer, Jailer 2, and Coolie in their IPL 2026 jersey launch promo video.
Sun TV moved the Madras High Court, seeking ₹1 crore in damages and disclosure of revenues generated from the campaign. CSK, for its part, removed the content and gave the court an undertaking that it would not use such music without obtaining a proper licence in the future. One promo video. One jersey launch. One courtroom reckoning and a signal sent across the industry that resonated far beyond the franchise itself.
If it can happen to CSK, a franchise with an entire commercial and legal infrastructure behind it, it can happen to any brand. That is the calculation marketing teams across fashion, D2C, FMCG, and e-commerce are now making as IPL campaigns go live. Music licensing, long buried at the bottom of a production checklist, has moved sharply up the agenda.
"If CSK can receive a legal notice for a single song during IPL, no brand running a campaign this season is immune. Music licensing is no longer optional." - Gaurav Dagaonkar, CEO and co-founder of Hoopr
The pattern extends well beyond cricket. In early 2025, Sony Music Entertainment filed a petition in the Bombay High Court against Myntra, alleging that the fashion e-commerce platform had been illegally using and exploiting Sony's sound recordings and synchronising copyrighted tracks with videos for the purposes of advertising products, promoting its brand, and for its own commercial benefit, on both its app and website. Sony cited over 21 songs used without a licence and sought ₹5 crore in damages claiming that despite a cease-and-desist notice, Myntra had continued using the content.
Industry insiders say hundreds of such legal notices, from labels large and small are issued every year, almost always settled quietly. Brands pay up, sign a licensing agreement, and move on without public acknowledgement. The cases that do surface do so precisely because the parties are high-profile enough that the dispute cannot be contained.
Labels have significantly upgraded their enforcement capabilities. Major music companies and increasingly indie labels too now deploy content identification systems that scan social platforms in real time, detecting unlicensed use within hours of a post going live, regardless of whether audio has been speed-shifted, pitch-changed, or layered with voiceover. During IPL season, when brands post at high frequency across Instagram, YouTube, and Meta, the exposure from a single unlicensed track can cascade across hundreds of pieces of content simultaneously.
The compliance story, compelling as it is, tells only half the picture. Brands using popular licensed songs in their reels are seeing 60 to 70 per cent higher engagement compared to content using generic or royalty-free tracks, a difference showing up directly in campaign ROI.
"The question brands used to ask was 'do we need to license this?'" says Gaurav. "Today the question is 'how quickly can we get this cleared?' The ROI argument has done what the legal argument alone never could."
Hoopr, India's B2B music licensing platform, says it has signed agreements with four to five IPL franchises for the 2026 season, covering walk-out anthems, stadium activations, and digital campaign content. Its enterprise client base spans fashion, D2C, e-commerce, and FMCG with Libas, Myntra, and Frido among the 180-plus brands now on annual licensing agreements. The platform has seen inbound brand queries triple since February.
What is notable about the current wave of activity is the breadth of music being sought. Bollywood remains the dominant request, but brands are increasingly chasing pop and indie artists including Aditya Rikhari, Badshah, Karan Aujla, and AP Dhillon are among the most searched names on the Hoopr platform. The Punjabi pop crossover in particular has become a reliable engagement driver for fashion and lifestyle brands targeting younger, digitally-native audiences.
The demand extends well beyond Hindi music. Regional and national brands targeting regional audiences are actively seeking licences from labels like Merchant Records and Madhura Audio, the Telugu music label whose catalog has become s ought-after for campaigns in Andhra Pradesh and Telangana. International English music is also seeing a surge in interest, driven by D2C and e-commerce brands skewing toward globally-influenced consumers.
"We are seeing brands think about music the way they think about influencer selection," says Dagaonkar. "They are asking which artist connects with which audience, which sound drives purchase intent in which category. That sophistication simply did not exist three years ago."
Hoopr's enterprise licensing model gives brands pre-cleared access to music from UMG, YRF, IPRS, Merchant Records, Madhura Audio, and international labels. Pricing starts at ₹6 lakh for smaller brand packages and scales to ₹75 lakh and above for large enterprises. As the IPL season moves into full swing, brands that have not yet resolved their music licensing position are finding that the CSK case was not an anomaly, it was a warning.
"Music is no longer a creative afterthought. It is a performance variable and now, a legal one too. Brands that understand both are seeing it in their numbers." — Gaurav Dagaonkar, CEO and co-founder, Hoopr
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