ADITI SARAWAGI
PAID MUSIC APPS IN INDIA
Moving from records to cassettes , to CD ’ s , MP3 ’ s , iPods and now finally digital streaming apps , how we listen to music has surely evolved over the years . With the large number of apps available , companies were scrambling to secure their market share and offered free trials for their apps followed by subscription plans .
Not only are the prices of these plans varied , but there are various tiers to the subscription plans as well . There are monthly , quarterly , halfyearly as well as annual plans . Some apps also have tiers like ad-free , HD quality and unlimited downloads , language packs according to your usability . This customisation allows a larger audience to subscribe as per their needs and budgets . These are the most popular apps on the Indian market these days :
Spotify : Spotify is a Swedish audio streaming service founded in 2006 and is the world ' s largest music streaming service provider , with over 365 million monthly active users . It launched in India in 2019 and has proved to be a tough competitor to our home grown apps . Spotify Premium has individual as well as family plans and has plans for as less as Rs . 7 / day . You can even take weekly plans or annual plans for yourself and your family as well .
Apple Music : Launched in 2015 , Apple Music has a user-friendly interface . It offers a three month free trial and Rs . 99 / month thereafter . It also offers family plans along with CarPlay a unique app which seamlessly connects your music to your car speaker .
Amazon Prime Music : Amazon Music is a music streaming platform and online music store operated by Amazon . It is part of the annual Rs . 999 plan which also offers Prime Video , Prime Reading as well as Prime Delivery so all in all a great plan for the budget conscious with multiple offerings on the table .
Airtel Wynk Music : With over a 100 Million app installations , this music app from Airtel is extremely popular in India and is available for free to Airtel users . It also offers subscription plans at Rs . 49 / month .
Jio Saavn : From the house of Reliance comes Jio Saavn-with music from over fifteen languages as well as original podcasts from India . It offers unlimited downloads and adfree music for just Rs . 399 / year .
Gaana : Gaana is the one-stop solution for all your music needs and offers you free , unlimited access to over 30 million Hindi , English as well as regional songs . To go ad-free , it offers the Gaana Plus subscription plans which can be paid for monthly , quarterly or annually and it also has a special student plan for only Rs . 199 .
Hungama Music : It is a digital entertainment company in India , providing services across music , video , entertainment news and gaming . It offers an annual plan of Rs . 1,399 for music , videos , movies and even original TV shows . They have smaller duration plans as well .
YouTube Music : YouTube Music replaced Google Play Music and its recommendations are fabulous once you get into listening mode .
It offers a one-month free trial following which you may renew your subscription at Rs . 108 per month or Rs . 309 for three months .
Music companies want consumers to pay for their services so even artists know what audiences want to listen to instead of just playing the top charts every week . This can be achieved by limiting the quantity of free music available to listeners as well as smaller free trial periods . Though there is a debate about the pricing of these apps , no consensus has been reached for the same , hence we see the differential pricing for different apps . Some are of the opinion that keeping a low , affordable monthly cost will attract larger numbers and that is primarily how the Indian market works-value for money . Another point of view is that from yesteryear wherein customers would pay anything between Rs . 100 and Rs . 300 for a music CD which had very few songs and they would buy multiple CD ’ s , so for unlimited songs , charging a higher price will not be a problem for customers . Lot of consumers are paying for video OTT services such as Netflix and Amazon Prime as well , so music companies don ’ t want to lose out on the spending of India ’ s public , hence the high pricing strategy for some companies .
The Score Magazine
22 highonscore . com