“Spotify has already signed a deal with T-series and hired over 300 people in the country”
World’s largest music streaming service Spotify is reportedly set to start operations in India by early 2019. The company has been eyeing the country for long despite a few failed attempts. Now, it seems Spotify is ready to enter into the market where over 100 million people use streaming services. The platform aims to provide users to stream and listen to music for free (but with advertisement) or with a subscription amount.
The exact date of the launch is not confirmed yet, but a Bloomberg report claims that it’ll happen in the first quarter of 2019. The Sweden-based streaming platform has already signed a deal with some of the major record labels in India, such as T-series, and is planning to get others onboard soon. Moreover, earlier this year, Spotify reportedly hired over 300 people for its Mumbai office, including an editor who was earlier working with a rival music streaming service.
When Spotify arrives in India, it will offer a trial period for full access that’s longer than the company’s standard 30 days, according to a report by Variety. However, Spotify – which is extremely popular in Europe and the US – will face an uphill task in luring the Indian customers to subscribe to a paid music streaming service.
The platform is likely to face a stiff competition from local music streaming services such as JioMusic, Gaana, Saavan, and Wynk, and US-based Apple Music, Google Play Music, and Amazon Prime Music. Apart from this, the company wishes to solve the problem with acquiring music rights – which are more fragmented due to the scores of local labels and publishers – before venturing into the country.
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