Spotify, well-known music streaming application, is all set to enter the Indian market this year. The company is reported to launch its music streaming application on January 31.
As per a report by Variety, the Spotify has inked a deal with T-Series, one of India’s leading music and film company, which will provide a host of Bollywood and regional music catalogue to the Sweden-based music streaming giant.
The report further revealed that the company tried to lock down deals with three other major label groups including Sony, Universal and Warner, though it was not successful. With the new deal with T-Series, Spotify will have a wide range of Hindi content including Bollywood soundtracks coupled with other regional music like Punjabi, Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam, Bengali and more.
As per the report, Spotify will launch an extended free trial period, which could be longer than the 30 days trial. Currently, Spotify is present in 65 countries across the globe and has over 159 million users, which include 71 million premium subscribers. Europe is its biggest market with 58 million users followed by North America with 52 million and Latin America with 33 million users.
With this, Spotify will have stiff competition from the rival music streaming applications. We have free apps like Gaana and Saavn, which are quite popular in India and has a good market share. Then the company will face competition from operator’s side streaming apps like Airtel Music, JioMusic and more, which is free for its customers.
Lastly, we have Amazon Prime Music, which is available as a part of Prime membership. The pricing will be one crucial part for Spotify as most of the Indian users prefer using advertisement-based streaming as compared to opting for a premium package. Further, the conversion from free to premium base will be another challenge for Spotify.