How Indian Electro-Pop Artist Ritviz Banked on Spotify Streams to Navigate Pandemic

MUMBAI — In India, a country where the average payout rate for an audio stream is 10 paise ($0.0014) — about half what Spotify pays artists in the U.S. — most independent musicians struggle to make rent from their plays on the nine main streaming platforms.
An exception is Ritviz Srivastava, a 24-year-old composer, producer and singer, and the creator of a sub-genre of Hindi electro-pop he calls “Hindustani dance music.” In 2020, Ritviz, who is known art