How to release a Kannada song: Spotify, JioSaavn, Kannada playlists and Kodava songs

Kannada is the first language of about 4.4 crore people (Census 2011), the eighth largest scheduled language in India. It is the language of Karnataka, and it is also spoken in north Tamil Nadu, south Maharashtra, west Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, north Kerala and Goa.

Sandalwood, also called Chandanavana, is the Kannada film industry: 24 of the 50 tracks in Spotify's Hot Hits Kannada carried a film tag on 23 October 2026, Kantara A Legend Chapter 1 songs among them. Around film music sit Bhavageete, Janapada folk, Yakshagana and dance remixes.

Release once with SUF Digitals and the song lands on Spotify, JioSaavn, Apple Music, YouTube Music, Amazon Music, Gaana, Instagram, Facebook and more than 150 other stores. Every plan includes caller tunes on Jio, Airtel, Vi and BSNL.

A Kannada song release on SUF takes six steps, and you can start today. There is no follower or stream minimum.

1. Open your SUF Digitals account and choose a plan, from Rs 999 a year before GST. You keep 100% of your copyright whichever plan you pick.
2. Enter your artist name with your Spotify and Apple Music profile links. If this is your first release, mark yourself new to the stores; your artist pages are created with it.
3. Create a release and select the language for the release and for each track. Kannada is in the "All languages" group and is listed as Kannada. Kodava is in "More Indian languages": the stores have no Kodava category yet, so they list it under Kannada, and your release keeps Kodava with us.
4. Upload a WAV or FLAC master (16 or 24 bit, 44.1 to 96 kHz) and a 3000 x 3000 pixel square cover, JPG or PNG. Check the cover first with the free cover art checker, which runs the same checks.
5. Add credits for the singers, composers, lyricists and producers, declare the song rights and set the date. You choose the release date from the Rising plan up; Debut sets it for you, 7 days after you submit.
6. Submit. Every release is checked against the stores' rules before it goes out. On release day, share your free smart link: it opens the song straight in each fan's music app.

Kannada has store-run playlists for hits, folk, poetry songs and festivals. These are the ones we found in October 2026:

Folk and Bhavageete singers have editors to aim at, not only film charts: JioSaavn runs a Kannada folk list, one just for north Karnataka folk, and Bhavageethegalu for light poetry songs. Kannada is also one of JioSaavn's radio languages.

Pitching comes with Pro, Signature, Label Pro and Label Enterprise, so from the Pro plan up. SUF sends your release to editors at Spotify, Apple Music, JioSaavn, Gaana, Amazon Music and YouTube Music, among them the editors of the Kannada lists above, and can pitch an EP or album in one go. Have it locked at least 14 days before release day, because Spotify only considers songs pitched 7 or more days ahead. The editors make the call: placement is never guaranteed, and SUF never pays for streams or playlist spots. See playlist pitching.

Kannada (ಕನ್ನಡ) has a single script of its own, the Kannada script. The stores still show Roman letters: on 23 October 2026, all 50 titles in Spotify's Hot Hits Kannada and all 47 in JioSaavn's Kannada Top 50 were written that way.

Write your title in Roman letters, the way listeners would type it into search, and add the Kannada-script title to the release description and your YouTube and Instagram captions. No emoji, ALL CAPS, "feat." or promo words (Official, Lyrical, Video Song, Latest, New Song, Trending) in the title.

The artist name must be in English letters, using only letters, numbers, spaces and . ' & ( ) -. Spell it the same way on every release, because a second spelling becomes a second artist page, and match the words on your cover art to the title and artist name.

Ugadi, the Kannada new year in late March or early April, opens the calendar. Dasara and Navaratri in September or October and Makara Sankranthi in January each get a JioSaavn Kannada playlist, and Karnataka Rajyotsava on 1 November brings processions with Dollu Kunitha drummers, Kolata dancers and Carnatic music.

On Pro and above, lock the release at least 14 days before release day so it can be pitched; for a festival, three to four weeks is better. That means early March for Ugadi, late August for Dasara, early October for Rajyotsava and mid-December for Sankranthi.

Kannada folk includes Janapada songs, Kolata stick-dance songs, Dollu Kunitha drumming and Yakshagana, the coastal theatre with music. The devotional side has Haridasa or Dasa Sahitya songs, Dasara padagalu, and Ayyappa mantras and stotras; Purandara Dasa is seen as the main forerunner of Carnatic music.

Each track is declared as original, cover, traditional or public domain, or remix. A Dasa song or village folk song handed down for centuries belongs to everyone: mark it "Traditional or public domain" and make sure the recording is yours. A film song or a song another writer owns is a cover that needs the song owner's licence, and remixing a recording needs its owner's permission.

Traditional songs never go on YouTube Content ID; only original songs without samples or non-exclusive beats do. See also devotional music and cover songs.

Kodava, also called Kodava Takk or Coorgi, is the language of Kodagu (Coorg), with its Mendele and Kiggat dialects, and of Kodava families in Bengaluru, Mysuru, Mangaluru, Chennai, Mumbai, Hyderabad and Delhi. About 1.1 lakh people speak it (Census 2011). It is written mostly in Kannada script, in Malayalam script near the Kerala border and lately in Roman letters, and it has its own Kodava Lipi.

The stores list Kodava songs under Kannada, which is where JioSaavn already files most of the Kodava songs it carries, all with Roman-letter titles. Balo Pat, sung by four men beating dudi drums, and the Pattole Palame songs, published in 1924, are sung at weddings, funerals and seasonal festivals; record one yourself and mark it "Traditional or public domain".

Plan around Kail Poldh on 3 September, Kaveri Sankramana in mid-October and Puthari, the harvest festival at the full moon in late November or early December. We found no store-run playlist just for Kodava (as of October 2026), but from the Pro plan up a pitch still reaches editors of wider Indian and folk playlists, and your fans' plays feed Spotify's Release Radar, Daily Mix and Discover Weekly.

Kannada and Kodava are two of every Indian language we release in. Compare plans, and if you also sing in Tulu or Telugu, read the Tulu and Telugu guides.