Gaana and Hindi Music — A Deadly Combination

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: Gaana is the best choice for you if you listen to a lot of Hindi Music and only the most popular English Music.

The fastest growing business inside Times Group got to stand for something. With a reported 300% growth, Gaana is making waves for sure. A strong web & mobile presence, advertisement backing from Times group and an array of original radio style music podcasts, Gaana is a strong contender for the top spot for streaming Hindi Music.

Granted it has a good collection of English Music too, it’s just that it seems it’s discoverability is hidden. Home page, radios, discover section are all geared towards Hindi Music.

Also, what’s up with the Gaana Social features? Half-baked at best, but they are fresh out of the box so I’ll reserve further comments till it’s stable. Social music is something to bet on, for sure.

Gaana has grown so much in recent years. I remember Gaana as a very badly designed, barely functional app back in 2012. I resorted to YouTube for most of my music needs and when I revisited in 2014, I was up for a pleasant surprise.

Gaana also has tied up with Radio Mirchi for radios.

What I do:

Listen to music from each era, all major music labels and all levels of popularity ranging between Bollywood and Indipop to understand and share what a listener can expect from the platform.

Here are my results:

1. When you have a decade wise ‘Rare Gems’ playlist, you get brownie points for sure.
2. Gaana’s ‘one touch’ radio draws parallels to Google Play Music’s I’m feeling lucky radio, which is saying a lot.
3. Alright Bollywood has their home here. I found everything I threw at it. (I kind of feel sad about it and I don’t know why!)
4. Gaana exclusive adds a new dimension to their catalogue, not all music is in Hindi though.
5. Not a lot of Indie music though. A lot is missing and I wonder why. I understand the focus on Bollywood music and them getting all the attention. But building a decent Indie library won’t hurt you Gaana!
6. Sleep timer is a nicety I wish every app had. Listening to ‘Faasle’ by Jaffer Zaidi or Shreya Ghosal’s ‘Chandaniya’ on repeat for 15 mins before you sleep is heavenly.
7. Wonderful discovery of songs from my teenage era ( the 2000’s), that is forgotten on most platforms. On other platforms, there are top tracks of today and then there are 90’s radios. Nothing in between.
8. Strangely enough, a lot of Pakistani pop has made it’s way into Gaana nicely. More power to them!
9. 90’s Indipop is present, mercifully, and is as refreshing as ever with Aryans and Euphoria leading my playlist with Shaan, Sonu Nigam and Mohit Chauhan peppering their class tracks.
10. It took ages for Coke Studio songs to come to Gaana though. So not all music is readily available when it releases.

Overall, I’d be satisfied with Gaana for my Hindi music needs.

This is the sixth 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.

You got to have Gaana, on it’s free tier maybe.

Signing off!