Rapid growth in concerts across India creates employment opportunities in expanding urban areas
The Indian concert industry is undergoing a remarkable transformation, moving from seasonal spectacles to year-round economic engines, as highlighted by Sachin Alug, CEO of NLB Services. This shift, which has been reported on by BW Marketing, is not only reshaping the entertainment landscape but also fuelling tourism and business growth across the country.
According to Alug, this transformation requires the building of training pipelines in collaboration with policymakers. Each concert delivers 15,000-20,000 roles in areas such as crowd management, hospitality, digital media, and production. With the Indian concert economy projected to generate nearly 12 million temporary jobs by 2032, there is an urgent need for skilled professionals, particularly in non-metro hubs.
Current initiatives to build training pipelines for sound engineering, event tech, and digital strategy in non-metro Indian cities are emerging but still need significant scaling to match the growing concert economy. The live concert boom in India, especially in tier 2 and tier 3 cities, is driving demand for skilled professionals in these domains.
Platforms like BookMyShow and District are making proactive moves to create sustainable employment pipelines in event-related skills. However, there is a recognized shortage of trained personnel beyond metro areas, creating an urgent need for structured training and certification programs.
Experts emphasize that broader partnerships between the industry, academic institutions, and government training programs are crucial to scale skill-building initiatives nationally, especially in non-metro hubs. Some educational institutions are offering formal training in sound engineering and related fields. For example, TAG Institute provides forward-looking courses in Sound Engineering and Music Production designed by industry professionals. ChitroNova – School of Film & New Media at Techno India University is accepting applications for programs focusing on relevant skills. Peer-learning platforms and workshops, where active sound engineers share knowledge and skills related to India’s live music scene, also contribute to hands-on industry exposure.
Despite these steps, experts warn that without structured, certified training programs widely accessible in non-metro areas, India risks falling short of meeting the skill demand driven by events like shows by Travis Scott, Coldplay, and others, which increasingly use advanced sound and event technology.
In summary, while initiatives exist through platforms, institutes, and collaborations, the training infrastructure for sound engineering, event technology, and digital strategy in India's non-metro cities is still at a developing stage and requires further expansion and government backing to fully capitalize on the concert economy growth outside major metros.
- As the concert economy in India is projected to generate millions of jobs, particularly in non-metro hubs, there is a pressing need for skilled professionals in areas like sound engineering, event tech, and digital strategy.
- To fully capitalize on the growth of the concert economy outside major metros in India, it is crucial to expand and strengthen the training infrastructure for skills like sound engineering and event technology, especially in non-metro cities.
