The music app has redesigned some of the features for Indian market, and includes multiple language options. Music streaming service Spotify was launched in India late in the evening on Tuesday. The Spotify app is now available for free download or with an upgrade to Spotify Premium for ₹119 per month, the company said in a release. “As Spotify grows, our goal is to bring millions of artists and billions of fans together from every country and background,” Daniel Ek, Spotify founder and CEO, said in a statement. The music app has redesigned some of the features for Indian market, and includes multiple language options. “With many Indians speaking several local languages, Spotify's music recommendation engine can now be tuned to Hindi, Punjabi, Tamil and Telugu. Indian users can select their preferred language(s) to receive tailored Daily Mix, Home, Radio, Search results and recommendations,” the company press release stated. Spotify, with over 200 million users globally, will now compete with other music streaming apps such as Gaana, Amazon music.<doc-sep>After a long wait, Spotify just went live in India. The Swedish company had been eyeing an entry into one of the largest music market of the world and late Tuesday night, consumers were able to download and use the Spotify app from Google Play Store and Apple App Store. It was only yesterday that Spotify was at the receiving end of an injunction filed by Warner Music Group with the Bombay High Court. The case prevented Spotify to access Warner/Chappell Music catalog with the company going on record to say that it “remains the lone holdout needed for a Spotify launch in India”. While there’s no update on the case, eagle-eyed fans of the music streaming service were able to download the Spotify app. Spotify has built-in some exclusive features for the Indian listeners which it detailed in a blog post. The app’s recommendation engine has been tuned to suggest music in multiple languages including Hindi, Punjabi, Tamil, and Telugu. This is for Spotify’s auto-curated Daily Mix, Home and Radio playlists. In addition, there are new playlists specifically for the Indian audiences including Indiestan, Rap 91, Namaste Love, Punjabi101, and Bollywood Butter, to name a few. Users will also be able to check out tracks based on what’s trending in cities like Mumbai, Delhi, Bangaluru and Chennai. “As Spotify grows, our goal is to bring millions of artists and billions of fans together from every country and background. India has an incredibly rich music culture, and to best serve this market, we’re launching a custom-built experience. Not only will Spotify bring Indian artists to the world, we will also bring the world’s music to fans across India. We have been working towards this goal for quite some time, and I am thrilled with today’s launch,” says Daniel Ek, Spotify’s founder and CEO. Spotify India Premium subscription prices and student offer Indian users can listen to music on the Spotify app for free albeit with ads and streaming quality topping out at “high”. The Premium subscription bypasses these limitations and listeners can use the app ad-free, download music and set the streaming quality to “very high”. Spotify offers a bunch of Premium subscription plans for users to choose from. The monthly plan starts from Rs 119 per month on a recurring basis. Alternatively, users can choose from a daily, weekly, monthly, quarterly, half-yearly and annual prepaid plan which are priced as: Daily- Rs 13 Rs 13 Weekly- Rs 39 Rs 39 Monthly- Rs 129 Rs 129 3 months- Rs 389 Rs 389 6 months- Rs 719 Rs 719 1 year- Rs 1,189 Spotify is also offering a Premium subscription to students at a special price. For students over the age of 18 enrolled at an accredited college or university, Spotify can be subscribed for Rs 59 per month for four years. The second plan is priced at Rs 66 and enables a single month of subscription. There’s a student verification process in place through SheerID which will corroborate the student’s status, following which they will be able to get over 50% discount for Spotify Premium.<doc-sep>With its arrival in India, Spotify boasts 79 markets around the globe with 207 million users. Of those, some 96 million are paid subscribers, a ratio of almost 2 to 1. “As Spotify grows,” said Daniel Ek, Spotify founder and CEO in a statement, “our goal is to bring millions of artists and billions of fans together from every country and background.” For Spotify, India isn’t just another market. It's a potential goldmine, at least in terms of driving its subscription numbers. India's population has raced past 1.3 billion, second only to China, and its market for mobile apps is reportedly surging. More than 400 million Indian consumers are said to be connected to the Internet. In India, local content is king. And Bollywood rules. The IFPI’s Music Consumer Insight Report 2018 reveals “Bollywood new,” “Bollywood old,” and “Indian classical music,” are the most popular respective genres in the market. Spotify geared up for its entry by striking an arrangement with leading music/film company T-Series to license more than 160,000 songs, including Bollywood soundtracks. The Sweden-originated tech firm also secured a license with the domestic collecting society, and entered content talks with all three major labels, local labels, publishers and indies. “India has an incredibly rich music culture and to best serve this market,” notes Ek, “we’re launching a custom-built experience. Not only will Spotify bring Indian artists to the world, we’ll also bring the world’s music to fans across India. Spotify’s music family just got a whole lot bigger.”<doc-sep>
Spotify has reportedly launched for some users in India today, with plans to officially launch on Wednesday to everyone, Variety, citing sources with knowledge of Spotify’s plans, reports. Update: It’s now official, Spotify has announced its launch in India. What’s particularly interesting is that, just for India, Spotify users who do not pay for a subscription can play any song on demand on mobile. There is also playlists for India and a “Starring…” feature that includes music from Bollywood movies. Here’s a statement from Spotify founder and CEO Daniel Ek: As Spotify grows, our goal is to bring millions of artists and billions of fans together from every country and background. India has an incredibly rich music culture and to best serve this market, we’re launching a custom-built experience. Not only will Spotify bring Indian artists to the world, we’ll also bring the world’s music to fans across India. Spotify’s music family just got a whole lot bigger. Spotify said it now has over 200 million users, of which 87 million are paying customers, and it is in 79 markets worldwide. The rest of our original post is below. For the first 30 days, Spotify’s premium service will be free and then cost 119 rupees (about $1.67) per month. There are also single-day, weekly, monthly, three-month, six-month and annual plans. Similar to other streaming services available in India, Spotify will also offer a free, ad-supported product. Spotify first announced its intent to launch in India last March. In November, Spotify CEO Daniel Ek cited licensing situations as a roadblock to its launch. Last month, Spotify inked a global content deal with T-Series, a leading Indian film and music company with a catalog of more than 160,000 songs. As TechCrunch’s Sarah Perez has noted, the Indian market won’t be an easy one for Spotify to win. That’s because Spotify is up against local player Gaana, which already has more than 80 million users, Saavn and Wynk, as well as the North American likes of Google, Apple and Amazon. This launch is happening in light of Spotify’s legal battle with Warner Music Group. Earlier this week, WMG asked an Indian court to block Spotify from being able to play music from its catalog. TechCrunch has reached out to Spotify and will update this story if we hear back. Additional reporting from Jon Russell