How to release a Naga or Nagamese song: Spotify, JioSaavn, Hornbill and caller tunes

Naga is not one language but many. Nagaland has 17 major tribes, 15 of them Naga, speaking Ao, Angami, Konyak, Lotha, Sumi, Chang, Phom, Sangtam, Yimchungru, Rengma and more, and Naga languages such as Tangkhul, Mao and Rongmei count lakhs of speakers too. Ao alone is spoken by about 2.6 lakh people, and Konyak and Mao by about 2.4 lakh each (Census 2011).

Nagamese, a creole also called Naga Pidgin, ties them together. It is Nagaland's lingua franca, spoken by nearly everyone there and used on news and radio, though the census does not count it as a language. English has been the state's official language since 1967.

Each December the Hornbill Festival hosts the Hornbill National Rock Contest, a Choral Panorama and the North East India Drum Ensemble. Whether you sing rock, choir music or a village song, one SUF release reaches Spotify, JioSaavn, YouTube Music, Apple Music, Amazon Music, Gaana, Instagram and more than 150 stores worldwide, and caller tunes on Jio, Airtel, Vi and BSNL cost nothing extra.

Every Naga language, and Nagamese, goes out under one store language, Naga, so the steps are the same whichever you sing in.

1. Open your SUF Digitals account and choose a plan. Plans start at Rs 999 a year before GST, and every plan leaves 100% of your copyright with you.
2. Add your artist name and your Spotify and Apple Music profile links. For a first release, mark yourself as new to the stores; your artist pages are created with it.
3. Create the release and set its language, and each track's, to Naga, under All languages in the picker. The stores list the song as Naga, so name the exact language, such as Ao, Sumi or Nagamese, in your release description.
4. Upload a WAV or FLAC master (16 or 24 bit, 44.1 to 96 kHz) and a square cover of 3000 x 3000 pixels, JPG or PNG. Check it first with the free cover art checker, which runs the same checks.
5. Credit the singers, composers, lyricists and producers, declare the rights for each song and pick the release date. From the Rising plan up you choose the date; on Debut it is set 7 days after you submit.
6. Submit. SUF checks every release against the stores' rules before delivery, and on release day your free smart link opens the song straight in each fan's own music app.

We found no store-run playlist for any Naga language, or for Nagamese, on Spotify, JioSaavn or Apple Music as of October 2026. None of them is in JioSaavn's language menu or among the languages Gaana names.

Pitching comes with the Pro plan and above: SUF puts your single, EP or album before the editors at Spotify, Apple Music, JioSaavn, Gaana, Amazon Music and YouTube Music. Lock it at least 14 days before release day, since Spotify only considers songs pitched a week or more ahead. The editors have the final say, so placement is never guaranteed, and SUF never buys streams or playlist spots. More on playlist pitching.

Nagamese has used the Roman script since it was standardised in the early 1970s, when Devanagari, Assamese and Bengali were also considered. For the stores, write every Naga title in Roman letters, the way your listeners type it on a phone, and add any other spelling to your description and captions.

Spellings vary even in official records: the census writes Sema for Sumi, Kabui for Rongmei and Yimchungre for Yimchungru. That is the reason to fix one spelling of your artist name and use it everywhere, because a different spelling creates a separate artist page.

On SUF, an artist name can use English letters, numbers, spaces and the marks . ' & ( ) - and nothing else. Keep the cover words identical to the title and artist name, and leave emoji, ALL CAPS, feat. and promo words such as Official or Trending out of titles.

December is the peak. The Hornbill Festival runs from 1 to 10 December at Kisama Heritage Village near Kohima, the state's Festival of Festivals for every Naga group, with evening concerts and its rock contest. Christmas follows: in 2011 Nagaland had the highest Christian share of any Indian state, at 87.93%.

For a Hornbill song, a release day in early November gives three to four weeks before the festival opens, which means locking the release by about 20 October. Christmas songs follow the same arithmetic: out by the start of December, locked by mid-November.

Folk songs passed down in a village belong to everyone. Record your own version and declare it Traditional or public domain; only the recording is yours, so it must be your own performance.

A choir arrangement of a traditional song works the same way. A choir or band singing a song someone else wrote is releasing a cover, which needs the song owner's licence, and a remix needs the original recording owner's permission. More in cover songs.

Your own rock or pop songs, with no samples or non-exclusive beats, can go on YouTube Content ID. Traditional songs are never put on it.

Every language below goes out under Naga, and so do Zeme, Liangmai, Khezha, Maram, Pochury, Chakhesang and the rest.

Naga and Nagamese are on our list of every Indian language we release in. Pick from the plans, or read the Manipuri and Mizo guides.