DJs in India went from shaping a subculture to chasing paycheques

The role of a DJ—or a disc jockey—has moved far beyond nightclubs. These days DJs in India are more likely to be heard playing a set over breakfast than at midnight. Coffee raves in India’s urban centres, or early morning dance parties fuelled by caffeine and electronic music, are taking over the Indian DJ scene. A trend imported from Europe and made viral on social media marks a shift in how young India consumes sounds, spaces, and subcultures. 

Goa saw its first coffee rave in December 2024, followed by Bengaluru in January 2025, Delhi and Kolkata in February, and Mumbai in April, where it was headlined by Nikhil Chinapa. 

Fifteen years ago, electronic music in India meant trance-heavy sets at Goa’s Sunburn Festival or the occasional VH1 feature. Today, DJs in India are headlining music festivals, club nights, and ramen-fuelled pop-ups. Audiences are tuning into everything from Afro tech and melodic techno to dubstep and Bolly-infused bass. Global artists like Charlotte de Witte and Artbat are touring India. Even British DJ Fred Again is planning a return in October this year. So, what has changed? 

The subgenres of electronic music Indians are listening to 

“India’s taste in electronic music has evolved from House and Trance to Techno, Deep House, Progressive, Future Bass and other niche subgenres,” says Karan Singh, CEO, Sunburn. “So, DJs today are headliners, with the kind of demand that was unthinkable in the early days.” Sunburn hosted Afrojack in Shillong in 2024 and Timmy Trumpet in Pune earlier this year. 

Similarly, Alan Walker’s WalkerWorld Tour in India expanded to include cities like Bhubaneswar, Guwahati, and Jaipur this year, after visiting  Ahmedabad, Kochi, Pune, and Shillong in 2024. Meanwhile, cities like Kolkata, Indore, Raipur, and Ranchi are also witnessing a surge in electronic music fans. 

“With more resident IPs launching after 2021, electronic music in India claimed more non-conventional and alternative spaces by going beyond just clubs. Streaming platforms, digital communities, and alternative electronic music platforms have helped elevate DJs in India to the role of tastemakers, expanding their reach beyond the traditional club circuit,” says Delhi-born Ayesha Dikshit, 32, program director at Boxout.fm, an online radio station digital platform promoting underground and alternative electronic music in India. 

“Across the world, people are opting for things that are easy to consume. And electronic music, particularly Techno, with its 4x4 beats and a high and drop, followed by a high and a drop, is easy to the ear,” says Lush Lata a.k.a Nandini Bansal, a 33-year-old DJ and producer, who just toured Europe, the United Kingdom, and Canada. “Abroad, people are listening to the more introspective and moody Americanised Whitewashed Techno and Dark European Techno. But Indians just want to party. So, clubs here mostly play Techno.” Bansal started listening to electronic music in 2006 with Dubstep and Trap, attending Magnetic Fields Music Festival in Rajasthan, before she gave DJing a shot herself after attending a workshop Wild City organised with the British Council in 2017. 

Tracing the journey of DJing and electronic music in India

Electronic music in the country has been on the rise since the 2010s, propelled by music festivals like Sunburn that brought international DJs including Martin Garrix, Skrillex, Swedish House Mafia, Alan Walker, Armin van Buuren, DJ Snake, Tiësto, The Chainsmokers, David Guetta, and Hardwell over the years. 

Parallelly, bands like Reggae Rajahs, introduced Indian audiences to reggae and bass sounds in 2009. The same year, events and artist management agency Krunk began  organising electronic gigs. Wild City, a music platform launched in 2011, later co-founded the Magnetic Fields Music Festival in 2013. 

“When electronic music emerged from disco music, it immediately went underground and came back as House music and Techno. This was followed by an EDM phase before Dubstep’s brief stint, and then Techno went mainstream,” says DJ Nhilate a.k.a Nisheeth Rao, 40, who has been playing across India for the last 21 years. 

AntiSocial was established and started hosting electronic gigs in 2014, the same year English electronic collective Shpongle had performed in India. By 2017, Boxout.fm had launched their electronic music-focused Boxout Wednesdays, attracting 350-500 attendees weekly and, in the process, elevating and popularising Indian DJs. 

What helped was breakout Indian DJ-producers like Midival Punditz, who put India on the map with Indian electronica—drum and bass with Indian folk and classical elements. 

The economics of being a full-time DJ in India

Today, the opportunities for DJs in India are a dime a dozen. “The logistics are less complex with DJs compared to a live band. Getting a DJ means a one-time investment when it comes to equipment,” says Rao. “Also, most Indian weddings go on for more than four hours. A band can’t play for that long. A DJ can–I have played a 10-hour set at a wedding,” he adds. Rao began DJing in 2005 and has been programming electronic and Hip-Hop music at two venues in Delhi. 

Today, DJing in India has become accessible, portable, and affordable. “But there’s a lot more competition and noise,” observes Raj. This competition affects earnings. DJs in India can make ₹35,000-40,000 a month playing at clubs, up to a lakh per wedding, ₹50,000-70,000 at a corporate show and up to ₹50,000 at music festivals.

“Most DJs start at less than ₹5,000 for an hour’s set or longer. And we have to chase people for payments. The system is not concrete enough for DJs to be able to live a life just doing music,” says DJ Khadija a.k.a Deej a.k.a KHXDEEJ, 27, “We also invest in buying music, with each tune costing ₹150-200. It can be downloaded via random platforms online, but that doesn’t sound great on good sound systems.” He also works as an Ayurvedic massage therapist.  

KHXDEEJ, born in Surat,started DJing three years ago after nearly a decade of working with live event companies and producers. “The pay is also low because so much of the organiser’s budget goes in getting international artists to India. DJing is a space occupied by highly privileged people,” says DJ Zequenx a.k.a Zainab Wani, who has worked in digital marketing, events, and at record labels. 

Mumbai DJ Rahul Chhabria aka Chhabb, 39, knew this privilege when he started DJing in the early 2000s. He treated his earnings as pocket change until committing full-time a decade ago. Today, with many DJs competing, organisers give DJs one gig in two months. Chhabria’s earnings have returned to his early-career levels. 

Why DJing in India is more than just pressing play—and how AI is changing the game

“Every event wants to hire a DJ to ‘set the vibe’ because it’s easy. So, people think a DJs work is also easy–to just plug in a USB and press the play button. But there’s a lot of research and prep that goes into it. We have to create a sonic journey, for which we have to sit with the tunes, because not every song gels with another,” explains KHXDEEJ. 

DJ Zequenx admits she underestimated the skill involved in DJing until she learned firsthand. “A DJ has to create a journey using music/sound perfect that is for the moment. So, we need to read the crowd as we exchange energy with a room full of strangers. A DJ, then. needs to be an empath.” 

Most DJ sets today often last for about 45 minutes, but real journeys need two to three hours. Shorter sets might encourage cheesier music with bigger drops to accommodate lower attention span, but also hinders the DJ’s job of introducing people to new sounds in familiar ways. 

“There are relatable bits like hooks and lyrics, and abstract and textured bits that are more experimental. DJs use both: Give audiences a track they already know so they stay with the DJ, leading them to something different,” explains Chhabria. 

A DJ often uses a sync button instead of using their sense of hearing by focusing on manual beatmatching, and aligning the tempos and beats of two tracks by using the pitch faders on the controller/mixer. This, says Chhabria, “doesn’t allow for human error and imperfect music, which is what the younger generation is looking for.”

Though some DJs use ChatGPT to compile playlists of top hits, the skill lies in arranging tracks thoughtfully. “DJs are human libraries of music. They have to be so, because of the information about the music they carry—genre, track list, name of artistes, albums, etc,” says Lata. 

Should DJs avoid  using Artificial Intelligence (AI)? “Let AI figure out which frequencies to isolate or boost. AI can segregate vocals from drums and let you have separate stems, which wasn’t possible earlier. AI-powered mastering tools can also save time,” says Raj.

But AI-generated music also raises legal concerns. “AI will look into everything accessible, which could be inspiration from already existing tunes,” says KHXDEEJ. In the underground scene, the usage of AI is even more frowned upon.

The rise and commercialisation of raves in India’s electronic music scene

“In India, the underground electronic scene almost doesn’t exist because it’s all gone commercial. In the UK and across Europe, the underground side is surviving, alongside the commercial side,” says Zequenx.  

“There’s also the misconception that people have to be in an altered state of mind to enjoy darker music where the bass is harder,” says KHXDEEJ, elaborating on the industry’s association with alcohol and drugs. “It’s a huge problem because people who work in the industry also end up indulging even when they don’t want to due to peer pressure,” he adds. This, in turn, creates unsafe working environments for women. Female DJs face comments that their gigs are based on looks. “Even though there are a lot more women DJs, listeners, and those working behind the scenes, there aren’t enough women in positions of power,” says Zequenx, who, along with around 18 other fem and non-binary people in Delhi, formed The Coven Code in 2018 to teach each other DJing. The group fizzled after two to three years, but many members still DJ. 

Stricter Indian laws and a lack of underground spaces mean real raves have disappeared altogether. “The rave community died [about] five years ago in Delhi, and is in its last stages in Goa and Himachal Pradesh,” says Zequenx. She found solace in the community after moving from Thailand to Greater Noida in 2010. “I felt safe in that community. While in college, I was treated like an outsider because I sounded like one and looked like one, with my blonde-ish hair. Music was my saviour—people only began to respect me when I started DJing,” says Zequenx, who gave DJing a serious shot after attending raves across Delhi-NCR, Goa (where she now lives), Sri Lanka, and Himachal Pradesh. 

“Raves got adopted into festival culture, where people gained legal permissions and sold tickets, just like at bars and other venues. There’s no discretion, as there’s supposed to be for it to be [called] a subculture,” says Chhab. 

Today the term is also being used for everything that seems off centre.  A “ramen rave” for instance.  New-age raves offer PR opportunities and new audiences,  especially as a majority of Gen Z today is more likely to attend “raves” featuring coffee or ramen than alcohol. 

“The idea was introduced because people understood that the music industry has become all about going out at night and dancing through the night. But it’s also getting a bit out of hand and gimmicky, taking away from the music. It’s not a food or coffee pop-up,” says KHXDEEJ, who once DJed a drum and bass set at a bakery. 

Raj adds, “Eating ramen while someone DJs just sounds disrespectful. Though I would want to go to a coffee rave–it sounds so cool.” Thiruvananthapuram had its first coffee rave in July 2025 at Turf Cafe. Breakfast raves happen in Goa’s Morjim. Might it just become a new way to end a Sunday morning jog with your run club?

For Goa-based entrepreneur Aakarsh Choubey, 41, coffee raves can create an exciting evolution of café culture. "They bring together two vibrant communities—coffee lovers and music enthusiasts—creating a unique social space that feels both energetic and intimate." The founder of Studio PLI, a design-led business with a focus on specialty coffee, ceramics, and immersive brand experiences, adds: "We’ve always envisioned our café as a 'second space,' especially with more people working remotely. In that context, music, if integrated thoughtfully—keeping the timing, volume, and audience in mind—can be immersive rather than intrusive. It’s an opportunity to create a shared experience that brings the community together.” While genres like psychedelic, trance or techno might be a bit of a stretch for most café audiences, Choubey thinks lo-fi, funk, or soulful electronic could work well. “They can create energy without overpowering the coffee-shop vibe,” he says. 

But what began as a subculture of sound is now becoming a full-blown lifestyle—one that’s battling dilution, burnout, and algorithmic playlists. While coffee and ramen raves draw new crowds, many DJs worry the music is becoming secondary to the spectacle. For an industry that’s still underpaid, underregulated, and underrepresented—especially for women—the beats may be getting louder, but the struggles haven’t vanished. 

The future of DJing in India won’t be defined by tech or trends alone, but by who gets to shape the culture, and who gets to truly live off it.