Spotify Takes Netflix Route With ‘Premium Mini’ Mobile-Only Plans For India

Swedish music streaming giant Spotify is looking to penetrate deeper into the Indian market and take on rivals Gaana, JioSaavn and others with sachet-based subscriptions and revised daily and weekly plans. 

Called ‘Premium Mini’, Spotify’s new plans are priced at INR 7 for the one-day plan and INR 25 for the one-week plan. Previously, the same plans would have cost a user INR 13 and INR 39 respectively.  

The Mini plan would only offer the service to users on their mobile devices and not on the desktop apps or the web, similar to the Netflix plan for mobiles in India. 

Spotify has also slashed the price of its yearly subscription for users in India. Instead of having to pay INR1,189, one can now get the yearly subscription for INR 999. This is, however, a limited time offer that expires on December 31, 2020.

Spotify’s other premium subscription plans for India are priced at INR 119 for one month for a single user, INR 149 for the duo plan, and INR 179 for a group of six accounts. 

Last month, Inc42 reported that Spotify had witnessed a 29% year-on-year (YoY) growth in its monthly active users (MAUs), which reached 320 Mn, in the third quarter of 2020. And while it didn’t share India-specific numbers, the company announced that the growth in MAUs was attributable to a positive response to its marketing campaigns in India. 

Spotify India head Amarjit Singh Batra added that between January and June, the audio streaming platform had seen 5x growth in the number of creators who used the Anchor podcasting services.

Spotify, which was launched in 2008, made its entry into the Indian market in February 2019. Within a week of its launch, the global audio streaming giant managed to hit 1 Mn users in India. Gaana, Saavn, YouTube Music are some of its competitors.

YouTube Music, riding on the success of the video streaming platform, entered India in March 2019. Within a week of its launch, Youtube Music had registered over 3 Mn downloads, leaving Spotify’s achievement a little short of excitement.

According to the OTT Audience Measurement Insights, Gaana is followed by JioSaavan with 24% market share and Wynk with 15% market share. Global music streaming giants like Spotify, Google Play Music, Amazon Prime Music and YouTube Music trail the Indian players. Spotify has control over 15% of the market, whereas Google Play Music had just 10% of the market share. Apple Music, Amazon Prime Music and YouTube Music trail the pack.

According to Statista, revenue from the music streaming segment in India is expected to reach $393 Mn in 2020. Revenue is expected to show an annual growth rate (CAGR 2020-2025) of 7.1%, resulting in a projected market volume of $555 Mn by 2025.

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