Hoopr brings copyright-safe music to brands while honouring independent artists
Mumbai-based startup Hoopr’s licensing platform lets YouTubers and brands use music from labels like YRF and artists including Shaan—while ensuring fair pay for independent musicians.
After independent artist Gaurav Dagaonkar’s debut album College Days hit the stores in 2008, he got a few opportunities in Bollywood and ended up working as a music director and composer for over a decade.
“After Instagram started putting out reels, one of my songs on women's empowerment was picked by a few brands that used it as part of their product launch on Women’s Day. I had reached out to them about royalties as it was branded content,” Dagaonkar says.
But the brands refused to pay. After a long-drawn-out legal battle with a particular brand, Dagaonkar says he was paid a meagre amount. “That’s when I realised digital brands are going to make hundreds of such videos and there needs to be a system around licensing music for digital use,” he tells YourStory.
In 2022, he joined hands with Meghna Mittal and co-founded Hoopr, a music licensing platform that provides copyright-free music for creators to use in their content. With Dagaonkar as the CEO and Mittal as CMO, the nearly 40-member team operates out of Mumbai.
Building the music licensing platform
Hoopr first launched its licensing platform for YouTubers. The CEO says YouTubers tend to add a lot of music in their videos, as many of them dabble with long-form content. But if the music belongs to a record label, they receive a copyright claim on those videos. The moment that happens, all the revenue accrued for that video goes to the label—leaving nothing for the content creator.
“The idea was very simple. We had an entire catalogue of music that was copyright safe available for content creators and businesses across multiple subscription plans,” Dagaonkar says.
For creators, the subscription models are available at yearly rates of Rs 1,799 (20 downloads/month), Rs 3,899 (60 downloads/month), and Rs 9,899 (unlimited downloads/month). For businesses, the figures change to Rs 19,999 (100 downloads/month), Rs 39,999 (300 downloads/month), and custom packages with unlimited monthly downloads.
As of now, the music licensing platform has about 3,95,000 creators, primarily YouTubers, including Ashish Vidyarthi Actor Vlogs, Flying Beast, and Mr Indian Hacker. Before Hoopr, Dagaonkar says most creators worked with companies like Stockholm-based Epidemic Sound, which did not have enough Indian music.
“The next step was to take this concept to brands. Now multiple brands like Himalaya, The Man Company, and even IPL teams like Rajasthan Royals and Mumbai Indians use our music as their background scores,” he says, adding that among its onboarded 1,900 brands, 175 of them use their annual subscription while the rest follow a pay-as-you-go model.
Hoopr also empowers musicians. Dagaonkar says that when the startup was building its music repository, the hired musicians were paid up front.
“That was a risk we had taken, but it was necessary. We onboarded many musicians and asked them to make music according to their interests. For instance, a group of musicians would make cinematic scores in whichever genres interested them,” he says.
Hoopr has now onboarded about 2,500 artists. “Once a track is licensed enough times that it has recovered the money, we split that revenue in half with the artists,” Dagaonkar says.
The music licensing platform has also partnered with 21 music labels, including YRF Music, Saga Music, and Turnkey Music. “We are going slow with labels as they usually have a very large catalogue of music and we want to service the label well,” he says, adding that one can find songs from famous musicians like Diljit Dosanjh, Neha Kakkar, and Sidhu Moose Wala on Hoopr.
Embracing AI in art and growth
With many AI software now capable of producing music and content, the CEO acknowledges it as a competitor. But he thinks it’s a good thing.
“With AI videos, brands can create videos much faster. So, they are producing more videos, which means the requirement for videos has also grown,” he says.
Dagaonkar adds that while AI can make music, the startup remains an artist-focused music platform. “Even in AI music, artists ensure copyright by either writing the lyrics, creating a different melody, or using the AI track as inspiration,” he says.
The founder says that the music licensing industry is relatively nascent and there is enough room for artists, even if AI becomes a player in the market.
“We are not losing customers to AI. In fact, right now, the market is at such a stage where most are not even aware of licensing. People are now becoming aware of how to create videos faster using music. So, we're actually seeing both the growth in revenue and we're also seeing a higher retention.”
The CEO, while not disclosing the current revenue, says the music licensing platform has seen 5X growth in the last two years and is targeting a revenue of Rs 22 crore in FY26. Hoopr has raised over $3 million across multiple funding rounds and competes with companies including Epidemic Sound and New York-based Artlist. However, Durgaonkar believes his startup offers something for India and the Indian diaspora that others can’t.
“We differentiate ourselves by providing high-quality Indian music from renowned musicians like Shaan and Monali Thakur. So not only do we provide copyright-free music, we include songs by fairly popular artists and established music producers,” Durgaonkar signs off.