The Wait Is Finally Over! Amazon Prime Music Launches In India

In order to woo more than 60 Mn online music service users in India, Amazon India has finally rolled out its music streaming service – Amazon Prime Music – in the country. The announcement has come soon after the homegrown online music streaming company Gaana revealed that it is raising $115 Mn from Tencent and Times Internet to bolster the tech behind its online music streaming service with AI.

Further, reports have also surfaced that Swedish music streaming service Spotify, which set up its office last year in Mumbai, is also looking to start its operations in the Indian market.

Amazon Prime Music: What’s in Store For Amazon Prime Users?

An ad-free music streaming service exclusively for Prime members, Amazon Prime Music features voice control with Alexa. Over the past year, Amazon India has inked several partnerships with Indian music brands like T-Series, Saregama, Zee Music and more to build localised content for the Indian users.

Amazon Prime Music currently showcases songs in over 10  languages including English, Hindi, Tamil, Punjabi, Bengali, Kannada, Telugu and more. It will be available on Android and iOS mobile apps, desktop app and web player, Amazon Fire TV sticks and Amazon Echo devices.

Amit Agarwal, SVP and Country Head, Amazon India, said, “At Amazon, we continue to add value to our popular Prime programme.”

Commenting on the launch, Sahas Malhotra, Director, Amazon Music India further added, “We believe music listeners are going to love Amazon Prime Music as we bring a global service that’s been truly localised in its selection and curation. With voice controls the music listening experience cannot get any simpler, making music listening delightful, effortless and a natural experience for customers.”

Online Music Streaming Industry In India: Scope And The Rising Competition

In India, the digital music industry—downloads and streams—is estimated to be generating more than 70% of the $191.2 Mn (INR 12.2 Bn) music industry’s overall revenue, according to the 2017 “Indian Media And Entertainment Industry Report” by KPMG India and Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI).

After launching Prime membership programme in India in July 2016, the global ecommerce giant introduced a number of add-on benefits with Prime subscription for its Indian users.

In December 2016, Amazon introduced Prime Video service in India which provides its customers exclusive access to movies, Amazon’s original series along with premium content beyond borders. Amazon Prime now encompasses over 11 Mn Prime-eligible products across categories in India this year, compared to the 2 Mn products it offered in 2016.

With Amazon Prime Music service in line, Amazon also introduced its video streaming device, Amazon Fire TV Stick, in April 2017 against rival Google Chromecast. In October 2016, Amazon’s AI enabled virtual assistant Alexa-powered wireless voice-controlled speaker, Echo, entered the Indian market for select customers. The other awaited products from Amazon India are its audiobook and entertainment service, Audible.

In India, Amazon Prime Music will compete with music streaming services like Times Internet’s Gaana, Saavn, Hungama, Reliance Jio’s Music, Airtel’s Wynk, Google’s Play Music etc.

Also, last year, BookMyShow (BMS) also announced the acquisition of nFusion, an IT consultancy and infrastructure company to strengthen BookMyShow’s music streaming service offering, JukeBox. As of August 2017, Jukebox claimed to have over 1.5 Mn songs to choose from and a 300% growth m-o-m in terms of the number of downloads.

The market size of the online music streaming industry in India is striving to reach a new pinnacle with the Internet user base in India expected to reach 500 Mn by mid 2018. Just like ecommerce, the space is now getting flooded with foreign players and the war is getting intensified as deep pocketed investors like Tencent also showing their inclination towards the space. While the companies continue their fight for the top spot, the Indian consumer will certainly be getting the benefit here.

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