JioSaavn

JioSaavn (formerly known as Saavn & JioMusic) is the Indian online music streaming service and a digital distributor of Bollywood, English and other regional Indian music across the world. Since it was founded in 2007 as Saavn, the company has acquired rights to over 5 crore (50 million) music tracks in 15 languages. JioSaavn is a freemium service; basic features are free with advertisements or limitations, while additional features, such as improved streaming quality and music downloads, are offered via paid subscriptions.

JioSaavn
JioSaavn music on Android
Developer
Key PeopleRishi Malhotra (CEO & Co-Founder)[2]
Vinodh Bhat (President & Co-Founder)
Paramdeep Singh (executive vice chairman & Co-Founder)[3]
Launch date2007 (2007)
Platform(s)
Pricing model₹99 per month on Android / ₹120 per month via iTunes on iOS
₹399 per year on Android and iOS
AvailabilityWorldwide
Websitewww.jiosaavn.com

On 23 March 2018, Saavn announced merger with JioMusic in a deal worth more than $1 billion.[4] The merger was completed in December 2018, with Saavn being rebranded JioSaavn.[5]

History

Saavn was founded in 2006 as BODVOD Network and initially distributed Bollywood content in North America in a B2B offering.[6] Saavn later shifted its core focus to become a music destination for fans of Bollywood and other Indic music in 2009, re-launching its flagship product, Saavn.com, to become a B2C product. As of today, Saavn is one of the largest distributors of Bollywood and other Indian entertainment in the world.

On March 23, 2018, Reliance Industries Ltd acquired a majority stake in Saavn. Reliance executed definitive agreements for combination of Saavn with its digital music service, JioMusic. The combined entity is valued at over US$1 billion. [7]

Products and services

Saavn’s products are Saavn Pro, its music service that offers offline listening without advertisements, and its mobile apps, Saavn for iOS and Saavn for Android.

Saavn also integrated a social networking feature with its music streaming service in April 2015. Saavn Social allows users to follow the profiles and playlists of their friends as well as celebrities.[8] Users can share any song, album or playlist with their friends and chat about music real time.

Revenue model

Saavn’s business model is based on Digital-Advertising services (offers service with advertisement) and Subscription-based Business model (Saavn Pro, offers ad-free and offline streaming).

Partnerships

Amazon

Saavn was one of the first music streaming services in India[9] to be made available on Amazon’s voice assistant, Alexa, which shipped nationwide in October 2017.

Shazam

In 2013, Shazam, a media engagement company, entered into an exclusive partnership with Saavn.[10] As a part of this, Saavn’s music library was incorporated in Shazam’s music database. Saavn aims to provide its users with an enhanced listening experience with Shazam’s music engagement tools especially in popular genres like bhangra, devotional, ghazals, Carnatic, Indipop and regional language music like Urdu, Hindi, Punjabi, Kannada, Malayalam, Tamil, Telugu, Gujarati, Marathi, Bengali, and Bhojpuri.[11][12][13]

Twitter

Saavn launched its radio model in 2013 and later partnered with Twitter to crowd-source song requests via the custom handle @SaavnRadio.[14][15]

Apps for iOS, Android and Windows 10

In 2010, Saavn introduced its first mobile app - Saavn Music for Android. This was followed up with Saavn Music for iPhone. Saavn for iOS has received 9000+ ratings with an average rating of 4.5 Stars.[16] In mid-2011, Saavn added its latest app, Saavn Music for Chrome, to the Chrome Web Store and now it's on Microsoft Store running Windows 10.

Facebook

Saavn was selected in December, 2011[17] to be Facebook’s first global partner and first Indian partner on the Open Graph platform. This integration with Facebook allows users to stream any of Saavn’s millions of tracks using their Facebook logins and to listen to music from Facebook. In the first three days of launch, Open Graph doubled the total number of visitors to Saavn.com, and increased the number of visitors from Facebook to Saavn by 15 times.[18] Nearly half of Saavn’s user base uses Facebook Connect.

Sony Music

Saavn partnered with Sony Music to acquire Sony’s entire database of music catalog in 2012.[19][20]

Other partners

Saavn has 900+ label partnerships including Universal, Sony Music, T-Series, Tips, YRF, Saregama, Eros and Warner Music. Saavn’s brand partners include global names like AT&T, Bose, Lays, General Motors, Nokia, Samsung, and Western Union.[21]

Creative collaborator

Saavn teamed up with popular Bollywood actor Ranbir Kapoor in 2014.[22] He joined Saavn to collaborate on consumer marketing ideas and business development.[23] The actor was reportedly interested in working at a more business-oriented level at Saavn. He has expressed his desire to help "guide the brand, influence programming, connect with the next generation of music listeners and ultimately help build the best music product in India and potentially the world."[24] The partnership led to a number of ad campaigns that were launched in India and select international networks and generated more than 7 million combined YouTube views. Ranbir Kapoor is also co-owner/part-owner of Saavn.

Corporate Social Responsibility

Saavn actively participates in philanthropy, and in February 2015 partnered with Akshaya Patra Foundation for the launch of #MusicForMeals. For every hour of music streamed on Saavn, the company helps provide mid-day meals to school-going children through Akshaya Patra's network of schools.[25]

Saavn also works with The Internet & Mobile Association of India (IAMAI), a not-for-profit industry body that represents the interests of mobile and online value added services in India. In May 2015, Saavn co-founder and president, Vinodh Bhat was named as vice-chairman of IAMAI.[26]

Switch to subscription-only service

Beginning November 2016, Saavn started moving to a paid-only model (except India), initially offering listening for free for 30 days and after that a monthly subscription fee of $3.99.[27]

Saavn Original Programs

Saavn Artist in Residence

In 2016, Saavn launched its Artist In Residence (AiR) program with indie artist Nucleya.

Saavn Originals

Saavn later expanded its content offering into Saavn Original Programming, a slate of original, non-music audio programs that range from Bollywood to comedy and storytelling to cricket. Saavn’s audio shows include: "No Filter Neha," "Qisson ka Kona with Neelesh Misra," "Trial by Error: The Aarushi Files," and "Kahaani Express", among others.

Saavn Verified Artists

Saavn verified their authentic artists by providing verification badge on their profiles.

Artist Originals

In early 2017, JioSaavn introduced Artist Originals (AO), an original music program releasing and marketing tracks and albums by South Asian artists, songwriters and producers from around the world. JioSaavn was the first streaming app to offer original audio programming in India. Indian hip-hop star Naezy, Toronto-based DJ Sickick, singer-songwriter Prateek Kuhad, U.K.-based independent artists Zack Knight and Jasmin Walia, electronic artist Sandunes, Canadian artist The PropheC, contemporary classical duo Shadow and Light and UK musician Raxstar have also launched songs under the Artist Originals program.

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References
  2. Rishi Malhotra at CrunchBase
  3. Paramdeep Singh at CrunchBase
  4. "Integration of Jio Music and Saavn in a transaction valued at over $1 Billion". Saavn (Press release). 23 March 2018.
  5. Bhushan, Kul (3 December 2018). "JioSaavn merger: Reliance Jio users get free access to Pro version for 90 days". Hindustan Times. Retrieved 4 December 2018.
  6. Ghosh, Aparna (2014-08-14). "Saavn-raises-Series-B-round-of-funding". Livemint.com. Retrieved 2015-04-27.
  7. "Reliance Jio acquires Saavn, creates $1-billion music entity". January 2019. Archived from the original on 2019-02-27. Retrieved 2019-02-26.
  8. Rajan, Nandgopal (2015-04-11). "Saavn Social: When a music streaming app dreams of becoming Twitter, Facebook". Indian Express. Retrieved 2015-04-28./
  9. Singh, Jagmeet (1 November 2017). "Saavn to Come Pre-Enabled on Amazon Echo Devices in India". NDTV Gadgets 360.
  10. "Shazam partners with the Spotify of India, Saavn to improve its South Asian music recognition". TechCrunch. 3 April 2013.
  11. Smith, Oliver (2013-04-03). "Shazam Partners With The 'Spotify Of India', Saavn, To Improve Its South Asian Music Recognition". Techcrunch. Retrieved 2015-04-28.
  12. Rastogi, Harshita (2014-02-07). "Shazam and Saavn partnership expands to more Asian markets". BGR. Retrieved 2015-04-28.
  13. Saxena, Anupam (2013-04-03). "Shazam partners with Saavn to enhance Indian music discovery experience". NDTV Gadgets. Retrieved 2015-04-28.
  14. Russel, Jon (2014-12-03). "Saavn Partners With Twitter To Bring Tweet-Powered Radio To Its Streaming Service". Techcrunch. Retrieved 2015-04-28.
  15. Peoples, Glenn (2014-12-04). "Saavn and Twitter Team Up to Deliver a Crowdsourced Radio Station". Billboard. Retrieved 2015-04-28.
  16. Lewis, Alina (2014-08-04). "Five Spotify alternatives: Music streaming apps that work in India". Firstpost. Retrieved 2015-04-28.id441813332
  17. Varma, Vinuraj (2012-02-12). "Facebook Partners with Saavn Indian Music Service". datareign.com. Retrieved 2015-04-28.
  18. Rao, Leena (2012-02-16). "Eyeing The Indian Market, Facebook Partners With Saavn On Global Social Music Service". Tech Crunch. Retrieved 2015-04-28.
  19. SN, Vikas (2012-11-21). "Saavn Adds English Music To Its Catalogue; Sony Music & Universal Music Tie-ups". Medianama. Retrieved 2015-04-28.
  20. "SAAVN AND SONY WILL PARTNER ON FURTHER INITIATIVE ON DISCOVERY, AND EXPOSURE". Radioandmusic.com. 2014-12-24. Retrieved 2015-04-28.
  21. "Saavn partners T-Series, adds 1.3 lakh songs". The Hindu. 2014-05-16. Retrieved 2015-04-28.
  22. Sadhwani, Bhavya. "Ranbir Kapoor was brought on as a creative collaborator for online digital music company Saavn". Newsroom Post. Archived from the original on 2016-03-04. Retrieved 2015-04-28.
  23. Walia, Shelly (2015-02-22). "Can India's Spotify for Bollywood music keep on playing?". Quartz India.
  24. "Ranbir Kapoor teams up with online digital music company Saavn". Times Of India. 2014-08-14. Retrieved 2015-04-28.
  25. "Partner With The Akshaya Patra Foundation And Support Mid-Day Meal Programme". Akshayapatra.org. Retrieved 2015-08-29.
  26. "IAMAI :: Membership :: Council". Iamai.in. Archived from the original on 2015-09-24. Retrieved 2015-08-29.
  27. "We're Making Some Changes…". saavn.com. Archived from the original on 2017-10-29. Retrieved 2017-04-03.
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