Spotify garners 1 Mn downloads in 1st week on the back of its popularity and freebies

Indians were waiting for Spotify with much fervor and their love for the music streaming app helped the company amass 1 million downloads within a week of launch.

A month free trial along with the availability of higher quality audio and higher speed streaming seems to have triggered about 1,40,000 downloads every day ever since its launch.

Entered in India on Tuesday last week amidst legal tangle with Warner Music over licensing fee, Spotify has been offering premium subscription plans starting at Rs 13 for daily and Rs 119 for a monthly subscription. To attract young population, it’s giving a 50 per cent discount to students.

Further, it is not an uncommon knowledge that a small part of the Indian population had already been using Spotify via the VPN route, and downloaded the legal application right after the official launch.

This fraction of the population has indirectly helped Spotify’s fast-paced initial growth as it is accustomed to the features provided by the application and is spreading the awareness amongst peers via word of mouth.

The Swedish music streaming application functions on a highly developed algorithm. It’s music categorization into Daily Mixes, and recommendation albums like Discover Daily and Discover Weekly are few of the uniques selling points that Spotify accounts for its widespread popularity.

Spotify competes with Times Internet-backed Gaana, JioSaavn, Hungama, Wynk along with Google and Apple music. Currently, Jio Music and Gaana lead the pack with over 100 million downloads followed by Wynk that claimed 75 million downloads early last year.

For a context, Gaana took 45 days to reach 1 million downloads when it launched in 2013.

Spotify’s launch happened amidst a dispute from Warner Music Group over licensing terms. WMG had filed an interjection in the court to block Spotify from being able to play music from its catalogue. However, Bombay HC allowed the Swedish-based firm to launch after depositing Rs 6.5 crore.

Spotify also poured Rs 88 crore debt and Rs 6.38 crore in equity in the Indian arm via the Sweden-based entity. The most recent part of it was Rs 48 crore tranche in January this year.

While the initial euphoria around Spotify is obvious and unsurprising, it will have to fight long term battle with JioSaavn and Gaana to make a dent in Indian music streaming space that is set to grow with a fast pace.