Business & Tech

Punjabi Music Labels — The Record Companies Behind the Hits

Punjabi music runs on a business model that barely resembles the rest of the Indian industry. There is almost no album cycle: the unit is a single, the shop window is a YouTube channel, and a label's real asset is the audience subscribed to that channel. That made a handful of Punjab-based labels enormously powerful through the 2010s — and it is also why the last few years have gone the other way, with the biggest artists setting up their own imprints and keeping the masters. The eleven below cover both sides of that shift, and are ordered editorially by how much of the scene each one touches.

1

Speed Records

One of the largest Punjabi labels, based in Mohali, with a YouTube channel among the biggest in Punjabi music. For a long stretch it was the default route to market for a new Punjabi artist, and its back catalogue covers most of the mainstream names of the 2010s.
2

T-Series

Founded by Gulshan Kumar in the 1980s and now India's largest music company, with one of the most-subscribed YouTube channels in the world. Its Punjabi output alone would make it a major label, and it releases most of the Punjabi songs that cross into Hindi film soundtracks.
3

Desi Melodies
Jaani

Set up by the lyricist Jaani, and the home of much of the Jaani and B Praak catalogue. It is the clearest example of a writer-and-producer team becoming the business rather than working for one, and it has signed newer Punjabi artists off the back of that reputation.

Artist profile
4

Geet MP3

A Punjabi label with a very large YouTube presence, built on a steady release schedule of singles rather than albums. If you have spent any time watching Punjabi music videos you have almost certainly watched several of theirs without registering the label at all.
5

Humble Music
Diljit Dosanjh

Diljit Dosanjh's own label, which he uses to release his Punjabi music. He was the first Punjabi artist to perform at Coachella, in 2023, and the label is a useful illustration of how far an artist can now travel without a traditional record company in the middle.

Artist profile
6

5911 Records
Sidhu Moose Wala

Sidhu Moose Wala's own imprint, used for his own releases. Artist-owned labels are ordinary in Punjabi music now, and his was one of the ones that made the case: control of the masters, control of the release date, and nobody in between deciding what comes out.

Artist profile
7

Rehaan Records
Karan Aujla

Karan Aujla's own label and the vehicle for his releases. Given that he spent his early career writing songs that other artists released and profited from, the decision to own the release side is not a small one, and it is worth watching what the label signs.

Artist profile
8

Run-Up Records
AP Dhillon

The label associated with AP Dhillon and the group of artists around 'Brown Munde'. It is one of the labels behind the Canadian Punjabi wave that reached India rather than the other way round, which reversed the usual direction of travel for Punjabi music.

Artist profile
9

White Hill Music

Part of the White Hill group, which also produces and distributes Punjabi films. That combination matters in this industry, where a film soundtrack and a standalone single are frequently the same commercial product released twice with different artwork.
10

Saga Music

A long-running Punjabi label, also known through its Saga Hits channel, with a catalogue spanning folk-leaning releases and mainstream pop. It is older than most of the artist-owned imprints on this list and predates the YouTube-first model entirely.
11

Times Music

The Times group's music arm, which has released a substantial amount of Punjabi music alongside its Hindi and other regional catalogues. A reminder that the pan-India majors compete directly with the Punjabi specialists for the same artists and the same singles.