Spotify finally arrives in India to face Apple Music, Jio Saavn and Gaana

The Indian market of overpopulated streaming music now has a new global player.

Spotify, headquartered in Stockholm, announced Wednesday the long-awaited launch of its product in India. "India has an incredibly rich music culture, and to better serve this market, we are launching a bespoke experience," said Daniel Ek, founder and CEO of Spotify, in a press release. "Not only will Spotify attract Indian artists around the world, but also music from around the world for Indian fans."

The launch comes eleven months after the digital music company set up an office in the Indian commercial capital, Mumbai. At the time, India already had more than 300 employees. Last year, the firm also hired Amarjit Singh Batra, the former Indian CEO of OLX Online Market, as the country's general manager.

Spotify will offer more than 40 million songs and three billion playlists in India, according to its press release. The platform seems to have already developed a comprehensive strategy for the country as it offers multilingual recommendations in Hindi, Punjabi, Tamil and Telugu to reach a diverse audience.

In addition, it should be remembered that Spotify India is a very price-sensitive market, Spotify has been priced at rates well below those of other markets. A monthly Spotify advertising-free premium service will cost Indians only Rs. 119 (US $ 1.67), which is well below the US $ 9.99 billed in the US.

Buffering

The launch comes after many slowdowns. 19659002] Spotify was to be launched by the end of January. A few days ago, the company was facing legal hurdles. Warner / Chappell Music, a division of US-based music publishing giant Warner Music Group, has filed suit in the Mumbai High Court to obtain an injunction preventing Spotify from playing songs from its catalog in India after a dispute over their license agreement.

Warner / Chappell Music allegedly claimed that Spotify had decided to apply the rule of the Indian radio station to broadcasters to offer music in the brand's catalog, which features famous songwriters such as Katy Perry, Beyoncé, Kendrick Lamar and Led Zeppelin. consensus in the current negotiations.

However, Spotify claimed that Warner / Chappell Music had licensed various other services in India, adding, "… we conclude that WCM's intention [Warner/Chappell Music’s ] is to prevent our entry into the Indian market, denying Indian users have access to one of the world's leading music services and cause irreparable harm to Spotify.

Although the jury In the conflict rner / Chappell Music-Spotify, the Swedish company, which already has more than 200 million users (96 million paying users) in nearly 80 countries, is preparing to take control of the Indian music scene. It has an agreement with the largest Indian music label, T-Series, and has a music library of more than 160,000 songs from Bollywood and regional films, as well as Individual artists.

But despite these strategies, Spotify will not be a pakewalkakalka survive the fierce competition of the many players already present in India.

Fierce competition

In 2017, streaming revenue in India grew by 60.8%, well above the Asian region average (38.2%). With the proliferation of the Internet and the simultaneous decline in data transmission costs, the industry is moving towards an even bigger boom.

By March 2020, the country's online music listeners are expected to exceed 273 million euros, says consulting firm Deloitte. "The mobile internet revolution has resulted in a rapid increase in the number of connected Indians, making music streaming the preferred way to enjoy music here," Batra said in the press release.

However, this explosion gave birth to several For example, in February of last year, Amazon entered the market for streaming music in India by launching its streaming service without advertising as part of its annual premium subscription to Rs 999. At the time of its launch, Amazon Music was already offering a catalog of tens of millions of songs in English, Hindi and several regional Indian languages. Around the same time, China's Internet giant, Tencent, was running a $ 115 million fundraising drive on Times' music streaming platform, Gaana, the current leader in the sector with more than 75 million monthly users.

Vodafone – has also launched its own services over the years. Reliance Jio has become more and more a force to be reckoned with.

In March of last year, JioMusic, a Reliance-owned company, merged with Saavn's worldwide streaming music streaming portal under a contract worth over one billion dollars. of dollars. The new entity was at the forefront of the most innovative companies in India, established by Fast Company, 2019.

This article was first published in Quartz.