Spotify Launches in India
Spotify is now available in India, stepping into a market crowded by local players including JioSaavn, Gaana, Amazon Music and Airtel’s Wynk.
The Swedish company said it will offer local and international music to India’s 1.3 billion potential listeners and that users can also upgrade to Spotify Premium for 119 rupees per month.
The servive will offer multi-language music recommendations, meaning that 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, and Search results and recommendations.
For the first time on Spotify Free, smartphone users will be able to play every song on demand.
New playlists, curated and regularly updated by Spotify's team of Indian music experts, include Indiestan, Rap 91, Namaste Love, Punjabi101, and Bollywood Butter, as well as Top Hits in Hindi, Tamil, Telugu, and Punjabi. These sit alongside our celebrated international playlists, including mint, RapCaviar, ¡Viva Latino!, and the This is… artist compilations.
Spotify is also introducing Starring…, a series of playlists featuring music from the most popular Bollywood, Tollywood, Kollywood, and Punjabi actors.
In addition, new algorithmic playlists will be tracking what’s trending in Mumbai, Delhi, Bangaluru, and Chennai.
In January, Spotify had announced a partnership with India’s largest music label T-Series, giving it access to a catalog of over 160,000 songs.
Today’s launch comes on the heels of Spotify's recent expansion across MENA and Southeast Asia, bringing the total number of Spotify markets to seventy-nine. Spotify says it has more than 200 million users, including more than 96 million subscribers.