In India and elsewhere, there is a growing non-music audio market consisting of audiobooks, podcasts and audio series. Here two startups Pocket FM and KuKu FM are in audio entertainment segment.

Pocket FM offers bite-sized episodes of audio stories and novels in regional languages. It wants to deepen push into the US and expand into Europe and LATAM market in 2024. It follows a freemium model where the revenues are generated through both subscriptions and advertising. There are micro-transactions — a user can unlock a chapter of a novel for as low as Rs.9. In 2023, there were 20 million transactions and 75 billion of minutes of streaming worldwide.

KuKu FM largely focuses on audiobooks and podcasts in regional languages. It has signed an exclusive contract licensing deal with Storytel (Stockholm-based). It will offer translations of English books in regional languages.