Ten years ago, All About Music set out to do something India’s music industry didn’t quite have yet, a dedicated, serious space for the people who build and sustain music as a business. A room where a label executive and an independent producer could sit in the same conversation. Where technology, rights, creativity, and commerce could be discussed not in isolation, but as the interconnected forces they actually are.
A decade later, that room has grown considerably. What began in 2017 as a conference has become something closer to an institution, the annual gathering that the Indian music industry marks its calendar around. Across nine editions, AAM has hosted over 13,000 music industry stakeholders from more than 25 countries and over 900 artists. It has put A.R. Rahman and Hanumankind on the same stage. It has hosted Scooter Braun and Lyor Cohen alongside Javed Akhtar and Bhushan Kumar. It has watched India’s independent music ecosystem go from a niche conversation to a central one.
Click HERE for tickets.
AAM X — the 10th edition — returns to the Grand Hyatt Mumbai from 25 to 27 August 2026, and if the framing is anything to go by, the organisers aren’t in a mood to be nostalgic.
“We’re thinking less about the last decade and more about the next one,” says Business Head Chandni Soni. The conference is expanding its scope this year — new programming formats, a dedicated live music and showcase arm called Music X running across all three days, sessions focused on AI and music technology, and increased international participation. There’s also a new discovery platform for emerging talent, which, for independent music audiences, is arguably the most interesting addition.
The timing feels deliberate. The conference has tracked music’s evolution through themes — from “Music in Media” to “Resilience and Reinvention” to “Transitions” — and AAM X arrives at a moment when the industry is mid-transformation on almost every front. Streaming economics are being renegotiated. Regional music is crossing language barriers in ways that would have seemed aspirational five years ago. Independent careers are becoming genuinely viable at scale. AI is forcing uncomfortable but necessary conversations about authorship and ownership.
Conference Director Meghana Bhogle puts it directly: “The next decade of music won’t be defined by a single technology, platform or trend. It will be shaped by the choices we make today — around creativity, access, innovation, ownership, community and opportunity.”
For independent music specifically, AAM has always been a conference worth paying attention to, not because it caters exclusively to the underground, but because the conversations it surfaces tend to filter down into the ecosystem eventually. Rights, distribution, brand partnerships, sync, these are no longer just major label concerns. They’re questions every artist and small label is navigating.
The 10th edition, then, is less a celebration of where the industry has been and more a working session on where it’s going. Which, if you’ve been watching Indian music over the last few years, is exactly the conversation worth having right now.
All About Music X runs 25–27 August 2026 at Grand Hyatt Mumbai. Details at allaboutmusic.in. Click HERE for tickets.
