When music streaming data shapes Valentine’s Day marketing

On February 7, 2026, as Rose Day marked the beginning of Valentine's Week, a young adult in Mumbai might have searched for ‘situationship playlist’ on Spotify. By February 14, she moved from Arijit Singh's 'Gehra Hua' to heartbreak anthems. Across India, music streaming platforms tracked an emotional graph that had little to do with greeting card romance.

Arjun Kolady, Head of Sales, Spotify India, shares, “Globally, there are over 2.6 million user-generated Valentine’s Day playlists on Spotify, and in India alone, we’ve seen a 54% year-on-year surge in Valentine’s playlist creation in 2026.”

But ‘love songs’ aren’t the only moods people search for. There’s ‘self-love,’ ‘Galentine's,’ and ‘breakup anthems.’ Valentine's Week is seven days of shifts that people soundtrack in real time.

The music streaming market in India is expected to reach an estimated revenue of US$ 4,874.8 million by 2030 with a compound annual growth rate of 17.3%, expected of India music streaming market from 2025 to 2030. In fact, the commercial stakes are substantial. 

According to Hansa Research Group, 71% of Indian consumers planned to spend during Valentine's Day 2026, with 85% saying brand campaigns influence purchases. GoKwik's analysis revealed orders rose 43% year-on-year, with Tier III cities contributing 43% of volume. 

Given that music is an important part of Valentine’s Day, it also has a role to play in persuading consumers to show their feelings towards their loved ones, and brands attempt to be a part of the same. Research has indicated that listening to music, perceived as pleasant, leads to an increased release of endorphins (dopamine and adrenaline) and oxytocin in the brain. Moreover, people remember brands 96% easier if they are associated with music. 

"Valentine's Week is one of the clearest demonstrations of the power of Spotify Advertising to build emotional connection at scale," says Kolady. "As the Valentine's Day week unfolds, audio streaming patterns reflect how people celebrate with music, revisit memories, and emotionally navigate the moment with playlist creation, nostalgic film tracks, and even 'heartbroken' anthems rising in tandem."

A previous global report from 2023 indicated that ‘self-love’ searches rose 85% on Valentine's Day 2022, 83% from women. ‘Galentine’ searches increased 376% on February 12, peaking at 406% the day before Valentine's.

This year, 'Gehra Hua' by Arijit, Armaan Khan, Irshad Kamil and Shashwat Sachdev has emerged as the most-added track to Valentine's playlists in India on Spotify. 

Kolady continues, “What we see in our Streaming Data is not just a spike in consumption, but a real-time reflection of sentiment. This behaviour is deeply participatory. New releases quickly become part of the Valentine’s Day moment, sitting alongside timeless love songs that listeners return to year after year.”

And people are discovering music through reels. 

The discovery shift

"Valentine's week almost follows an emotional graph," explains Dipshika Ravi, National Creative Director at Schbang. "You can literally map mood shifts across the week from nostalgia building up, to peak love songs on the 14th, and then a rise in heartbreak tracks. The music curated during this week is deeply rooted in listening data."

On Instagram this February, over 10,000 pieces of content were tagged with ‘Valentine's reels.’ Music discovery now happens in 15-second bursts. "From a media perspective, digital is essential," says  Azazul Haque, Group Chief Creative Officer at Creativeland Asia. "Content that is shareable and has the potential to go viral works best. Short-form formats such as Reels are effective, and platforms like Instagram are particularly suitable because users visit them to engage with content and people they care about."

Spotify's Valentine's campaign features Shanaya Kapoor and Adarsh Gourav planning a date while spiralling into overthinking. Should the playlist be ‘lowkey’ or is that trying too hard? It depicted the youth’s moods when it comes to love.

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The platform’s feed became a mood board, featuring playlists from "hopeless romantic" to "girl power karaoke," acknowledging that Valentine's Week contains multitudes.

In fact, ad briefs have also evolved. Five years ago, a Valentine's brief from a music streaming platform would centre on subscriptions. In 2026, those briefs look different.

Neelanjan Dasgupta, Vice President of Creative Strategy & Innovations at RepIndia, notes that some music brands remain product-centric, he notes. "Typically, the brief centres on how to integrate the product into the narrative of two people coming together and how the product enables or enhances that connection," he says.

"What has evolved is the way these stories are told," Dasgupta observes. "While the product may still be important, audiences no longer respond to straightforward sales pitches. Consumers on platforms like Instagram are not looking for feature-led communication or overt promotional messaging. They are looking for storytelling and organic integration."

Keeping this in mind, platforms like JioSaavn focus on unglamorous acts of love: sharing earphones, making sure your partner is safe and more. Each Instagram reel has been soundtracked by music from their catalogue. The platform has also partnered with Parle Hide and Seek, asking users to upload dance videos. 

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Ravi has seen the messaging shift. "Over the years, the messaging has evolved from perfect lovey-dovey couple narratives to far more inclusive themes like situationships, singles, long-distance love, and everything in between," she says. 

Platforms like Gaana have asked questions like "What's your go-to breakup song?" and more, and subsequently revealed the most listened-to songs across languages in the first week of February 2026, uncovering regional patterns.

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Haque observes that the emotionally charged nature of Valentine's Week makes performance marketing particularly effective. Dasgupta identifies Instagram and YouTube as the two platforms agencies prioritise for Valentine’s Day.

Ravi's approach centres on meeting people where they consume music. "In such scenarios, digital, audio stories, influencer-led playlists, and in-app ads are most effective because they align with how people discover and consume music today," she says.

The influencer strategy is proving effective. The number of creators participating in Valentine’s Day rose from 32,000 in 2023 to 59,000 in 2025, with spending growing from Rs 20-25 crore in 2023 to Rs 60-75 crore in 2026, according to a Qoruz report. 

How Valentine’s Day communication can evolve

However, the key challenge during Valentine’s Day is to move someone who occasionally uses the platform into becoming a regular, active user, says Haque. 

“When it comes to clichés, many campaigns tend to rely on surface-level portrayals such as young, cool couples or overly stylised Gen Z imagery without deeply exploring real emotions. There is often an attempt to make Valentine’s Day look hip and trendy rather than emotionally meaningful. The real opportunity for music streaming brands lies in creating something deeply emotional and memorable.”

Over the years, the meaning of Valentine’s Day has evolved. While it was largely centred on heterosexual romantic relationships among young couples, it has gradually expanded across age groups and genders. Today, it goes beyond romantic love and includes love for friends, family, pets, work, and passions. The celebration is no longer limited to couples but embraces all forms of love.

Haque points to campaigns that broke clichés. He recalls a Carvaan campaign showing older Indians revisiting songs they fell in love with decades ago. More recently, a Netflix film portrayed a gay couple's relationship without making their sexuality the entire story.

Haque states, "Instead of trying to be cool or quirky, brands should focus on creating something heartfelt and emotionally resonant. That is what makes a campaign unforgettable."

Dasgupta sees many brands attempting to look progressive with surface-level diversity. "The best way to avoid clichés is to go back to basics and start with strong, interesting insights," he says. "Without a solid insight, it is very difficult to arrive at a compelling idea."

Valentine’s Day, even for a music brand, does not always have to focus on two people in a romantic relationship, Dasgupta comments and continues, “It could centre on one person, or on anything that brings someone joy and meaning. That could be a person, a passion, or even something unexpected. The key is to integrate the brand into that idea in a way that feels interesting and authentic.” 

Qoruz’s report indicated that singles and self-love content make up 37% of posts with a 5.4% engagement rate. Couple content contribute 35% with 3.5%. The best-performing content isn’t the most polished. It is the most emotionally honest.

Valentine's Day in India has evolved from a couples-only celebration into a week-long emotional journey. Music streaming platforms have learned to read this complexity, using data to understand not just what people listen to, but what they are feeling.