According to the Ficci-EY media and entertainment industry report 2018, the Indian music industry was worth $179 million in 2017 and is expected to grow to $434 million by 2020. Digital channels accounted for around 65% of overall music sales. Gaana is a rising star in the Indian music streaming space.

Gaana’s Offerings

Delhi-based Gaana was launched in 2010 by Times Media group. Gaana.com has over 30 million songs in 26 languages including Assamese, Hindi, English, Bengali, Odia, Gujarati, Kannada, Marathi, Punjabi, Tamil, Telugu, and Malayalam. It has 80 million monthly active users compared to 150 million users in the Indian music streaming industry.

Gaana streams over 2.2 billion songs every month. It offers products like Gaana Social, which recommends songs based on what friends and family are listening. It also offers a platform called Gaana Originals for launching non-film music with more than 100 million playouts.

Gaana also has a Voice Search feature, which comes in handy for vernacular searches. About 22% of users use the Voice Search and over 50% usage is expected in a couple of years. Gaana is also investing in using machine learning and artificial intelligence-related technologies to personalize music experiences.

Gaana aims to cross 200 million active users by 2020. The Indian music streaming market is expected to grow to over 400 million users over the next two-three years.

Gaana’s Financials

Gaana makes its revenue from advertisements and paid subscriptions. Gaana reported revenue of INR 27 crore ($3.8 million) in 2017, of which INR 17.22 crore ($2.4 million) was from advertising and INR 7.67 crore ($1 million) was from subscriptions. Gaana is not yet profitable.

Gaana’s paid subscriber base is currently very small, in lower single-digit percentage. According to FICCI-EY, only 2% streaming app users are paid subscribers, but paid subscribers are expected to grow to 5% by 2020. For music streaming apps, the average revenue per user (ARPU) is estimated to about Rs 70 ($1) per user. The cost of a 10-second advertisement spot ranges between Rs 150-250 ($2-$3.5) cost per thousand impressions.

Early this year, Gaana raised $115 million from investors including Tencent Holdings and Times Internet at an estimated valuation of $340 million.

Spotify (NYSE: SPOT), which had revenue of $4.2 billion in 2017, currently has a market cap of $24.5 billion. Spotify, which has over 87 million paid subscribers and 191 monthly active users, is also looking to enter the Indian market.

Gaana competes with Jio Saavn, Hungama, Airtel-owned Wynk, and global services Apple Music, Google Play, and Amazon Music.

I would like to know from the users of Indian music streaming apps as to what they think about Gaana? What features do you find appealing? How does it compare to its rivals?