Apple Music & Hindi Music — Catering to the top tier

Disclaimer: This and the articles that follow are an attempt at understanding the music tech industry from a Product perspective. We do not claim to be experts in the field. All we claim is to be students of music tech. We hope this series will help others understand music tech and hopefully appreciate the industry.

TL;DR: If you own an iPhone(3% of India), a credit card(3% of India) and aren’t too crazy about discovering music, Apple Music is a steal. Obviously it’s not for everyone.

This was supposed to be the third post in this series but Apple makes it notoriously hard for someone to come on their platform.

Okay, I know it’s not fair to say Apple music is only for credit card holding iPhone users in the sense that it can be disregarded from the comparison.

Google now accepts Debit cards and netbanking, UPI and even carrier billing. Apple takes Credit Cards only.

Most Indians who have credit cards are reluctant to enroll for a monthly automatic subscription and rather prefer services be stopped till they pay again.

Apple will have to understand this philosophy if they want to make a dent in the Indian market.

The fact that Apple also has a store in iTunes will perhaps help their course. There are only 3 players with stores, Google Play Music and Wynk being the other two.

Although, Apple is a stalwart with iTunes being the biggest music store in the world. I am not sure how committed they are to Hindi Music and I have no exposure to iTunes or Apple Music till date.

This is going to be a journey for sure.

Let’s see what do they have to offer musically!

What I do:

I listen to music. Old and new. Popular and rare. Bollywood and Indipop. SaReGaMa and HMV Music to Zee Music and YRF Music. And then some. And I report back what to expect on the platform.

Here’s what I found:

1. Apple Music has a huge collection of Hindi Music.
2. Parineeta’s Piyu bole is absent. Actually, that whole album is absent.
3. Could not find Ram Sampath’s Rangabaati.
4. Recent tracks like ‘Nazm Nazm’ & Atif Aslam’s ‘Jaane De’ are all there.
5. Apparently, they have Sulk Station.
6. Ali Zafar’s ‘Nahin re Nahin’ is present. Aasma’s self-titled album is absent.
7. Meghdhanush’s ‘Shaktiman cover’ is absent, but that’s me being nit picky.
8. Fair enough to say the library is at par with the Indian Music Giants. Better in some areas too.
9. Apple music does a fairly good job at radios.
10. Nothing to complain about in artist management & discovery.

Seems to me that they have a lot going for them and honestly, I’m (unpleasantly) surprised. They have the library and the second best eco-system in the world (after Google, IMO). They can capture a lot of market (including me) if they understand Indian mindset and cater to the general masses. It’s still sinking on me that they have so much Indipop music.

This is the eighth post in this series. Find the list here. Please share your feedback (Hopefully constructive) with me. Engage with me on my Twitter. Find me on LinkedIn.

Apple can make music it’s stronghold if it caters to India.

Special thanks to Isha Pandya for helping me out with this review. It would not have been possible without you.

Signing off!