Sweden-based music streaming giant Spotify to launch service in India

After video streaming or OTT (over-the-top) segment, music streaming category is going to witness a fierce battle in India. Sweden-headquartered Spotify, a music streaming giant, is planning to launch the platform in the country.

The company’s co-founder and CEO Daniel Ek revealed his plan to launch the platform in some of the biggest markets in the world, including India, Russia, and Africa which has a very rich musical culture. He was speaking at the company's investor day presentation.

Spotify has been preparing for the Indian market for some time. It already has 308 employees in the country. In January this year, it hired Akshat Harbola as the head of India operations.

In the event, the company also announced the plan to go public on April 3 as it lists on the New York Stock Exchange. Unlike traditional IPOs, Spotify will not raise new capital. Instead, it will simply list existing shares held by company insiders.

In the past few months, the music streaming segment has witnessed various developments as International players are betting big on the Indian market.

In February 2016, Amazon formally launched its music streaming service Amazon Music in India. The service is, however, limited to Prime members only, that costs Rs 999 annually.

During the same month, Times Internet-owned Gaana raised $115 million from Chinese Internet conglomerate Tencent Holdings and Times Internet. Tencent also acquired a minority stake in the music streaming app.

Tencent also owns stakes in Spotify. Last December, Spotify and Tencent Music bought minority stakes in each other for cash.

Currently, Google Play Music, Apple Music, Savvn Pro, Gaana Plus, Hungama Music Pro, Wynk Music and newly-launched Amazon Music are the notable players which offer paid music streaming services.

Some of the players also provide the free version of the music streaming service, which lacks many important features available in paid services. Besides, freemium models come with a series of brand advertisements.

The International conglomerates have also invested millions of dollars in the music streaming platforms.

The development was first reported by the ET.