A year after Spotify publicly expressed its intention to launch in India, the music streaming company has finally delivered. This is a notable milestone for the Swedish company, which went public last year, and has been aggressively searching for new users in global markets as competition from Apple intensifies.
Spotify said it sees a big opportunity in India, one of the fastest growing music markets. To court Indian users, the company is deviating from its global playbook. The company said for the first time, Spotify Free — its free tier — will enable users to listen to any song on demand — as opposed to accessing a limited set of playlists in other markets.
Additionally, its monthly premium tier starts at Rs 119 ($1.67) in India, compared to $9.99 in the U.S., €9,99 ($11.30) in France, and £9.99 ($13.25) in the U.K. The company is also offering a pay-as-you-go option, allowing users to access Spotify Premium for Rs 13 (18 cents) per day and Rs 39 (55 cents) per week.
The lower cost — the cheapest rate Spotify offers in any market — and an open free tier, underscore a unique challenge that India, the second largest internet market, presents to global companies. Very few people in the nation are willing — let alone can afford — to pay for premium services.
But for Spotify, there was little choice. The company will rival several global giants, including Apple and Google, along with more than a dozen local services that are waging a price war to win the market. Apple Music, for instance, charges just $1.69 per month, but doesn’t offer a free tier. Spotify is offering a 30-day free trial in India, and its free tier could give it an advantage over the iPhone maker’s offering.
“As Spotify grows, our goal is to bring millions of artists and billions of fans together from every country and background,” said Daniel Ek, Spotify founder and CEO in a statement. “India has an incredibly rich music culture and to best serve this market, we’re launching a custom-built experience. Not only will Spotify bring Indian artists to the world, we’ll also bring the world’s music to fans across India. Spotify’s music family just got a whole lot bigger.”
The launch of Spotify in India, murmurs of which go as back as 2016, is nothing short of a Bollywood film’s script. In the past year, the company has faced numerous challenges as it negotiated licensing deals with local and international music labels. Even in the eleventh hour, the company faced a lawsuit from Warner Music over licensing of the world’s third-largest music group’s owned tracks. It received some relief on Tuesday: The Bombay High Court, whose doors Warner Music had knocked on to prevent Spotify from offering the label’s songs earlier this week, said it would not issue an injunction.
Spotify said today that it had secured deals with most major local and international labels and is bringing more than 40 million songs to the nation. The app supports Hindi, Punjabi, Tamil, and Telugu languages.
Like in other nations, Spotify says it will offer personalized, local flavored playlists to Indian listeners. Some of these playlists include Indiestan, Rap91, Namaste Love, Punjabi101, Bollywood Butter, Top Hits in Hindi, Tamil, Telugu, and Punjabi. It has also introduced Starring…, a series of playlists featuring the music from popular Bollywood, Tollywood, Kollywood, and Punjabi actors. Spotify’s recommendations will also include songs from Indian movies and actors as well as playlists with city-based themes.
India’s music market
Once severely plagued by music piracy, India has emerged as one of the largest markets for legal music streaming in recent years. Research firm Counterpoint told VentureBeat earlier this week that about 150 million users in India regularly access music streaming services. In a report (PDF) published this week, Deloitte and Indian music-industry body IMI estimated that India’s music industry generated $130.7 million in revenue in 2017.
And there is a huge potential for growth. According to Nielsen, 94 percent of India’s 450 million internet users listen to music online. In its annual report published late last year, the research firm said an average user in India spends about 20 hours each week listening to music. Most users, however, gravitate toward YouTube, which counts India as its fastest growing market.
Other than YouTube, Google, Amazon, and Apple, a roster of local companies is vying for Indian ears. Research firm AppAnnie told VentureBeat that at the end of 2018, Reliance Jio’s JioSaavn, Times Internet-backed Gaana, and Airtel’s Wynk had the most monthly active users among music streaming services in India. (They were also the most downloaded music apps. Google Play Music also fares well on both the counts, but it remains unclear how many of its users are subscribers to its music service, App Annie said.)
Many of these services, like Spotify, offer a free, ad-supported tier. Additionally, JioSaavn, the result of a $1 billion-valued merger between Saavn and JioMusic last year, is available for free to Reliance Jio subscribers. And Wynk costs Airtel subscribers less than 50 cents per month.
The music streaming space has become a commodity. With every streaming service offering the same set of popular songs in India, many have added exclusive podcasts and regional content in recent years. Gaana, which offers its catalog in 30 languages, had 80 million users in December 2018.
Success in India could be crucial to 11-year-old Spotify, which reported 207 million monthly active users globally — of which 96 million are paying subscribers, during its quarterly earnings earlier this month. About 88 percent of all its users are in Europe, North America, and Latin America. In recent years, Spotify has expanded to several markets in Asia and Africa, but the company has yet to see major traction there. In comparison, Apple Music, which launched in 2015, has amassed over 50 million paying subscribers, as of May 2018. (According to some estimates, Apple Music has surpassed Spotify in the U.S. market.)
In a conference call with analysts earlier this month, Ek said the company is thrilled with the level of interest it has seen for the Spotify brand in India. It makes him feel that, “we have a good chance of being a very, very strong player in the Indian market.”
