Gaana’s Chief Executive Officer Prashan Agarwal then added that the platform expects to reach 200m MAUs in the next two years.
Although Gaana’s latest milestone is impressive, it’s not alone: another hugely popular service in India, JioSaavn, has also surpassed the 100m mark, MBW can reveal.
According to sources close to the company, JioSaavn currently has 104m MAUs as of today (April 29). Those same sources claim this figure is enough for the platform to stake its own claim as ‘India’s largest music streaming service’.
For comparison’s sake, Spotify, today (April 29) that it ended Q1 2019 with 217m MAUs globally, and over 2m users in India. Within those 217m MAUs, Spotify counts over 100m paying subscribers.
The JioSaavn platform in its present-day form is the result of a merger between Saavn and rival service, the Reliance Industries-owned, JioMusic.
Announced last March, that deal valued the newly-combined service at over $1bn. In November, it was revealed that JioMusic and Saavn would fully integrate and rebrand as JioSaavn.
In March 2018 Saavn reported to have 22m MAUs, but the rebranded JioSaavn has “grown exponentially over the last five months” said a source speaking to MBW.
“JioSaavn has grown exponentially over the last five months since their integration (with JioMusic) in early December.”
Source
“JioSaavn has grown exponentially over the last five months since their integration [with JioMusic] in early December,” said the source.
“Industry sources have the numbers pegged at 104 million monthly actives with [Android] Play store ratings having the music streaming service above all its competition in [India].”
“OUR ALIGNMENT WITH RELIANCE ENABLES US TO CREATE ONE OF THE LARGEST, FASTEST-GROWING, AND MOST CAPABLE MEDIA PLATFORMS IN THE WORLD.”
RISHI MALHOTRA, SAAVN, SPEAKING IN MARCH 2018
Last month, JioSaavn launched a discount deal through which users could subscribe to 12 months of its ‘Pro’ offering (the equivalent of Spotify Premium) for just Rs 299 ($4.34). A Pro subscription previously cost Rs 999 ($14.50).
Speaking at the time of the Jio Music merger in March 2018, Rishi Malhotra, Co-Founder and CEO at Saavn, said: “Nearly 10 years ago, we had a vision to build a connected music platform, dedicated to South Asian culture across the globe.
“Vin, Param and I always envisioned the company for the long term with intense focus on products, data, and ground-breaking original content.
“Our alignment with Reliance enables us to create one of the largest, fastest-growing, and most capable media platforms in the world.”Music Business Worldwide
