Saavn & Hindi Music — India’s Spotify, rightly so.

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 listen to equal parts Hindi and English Music, you found your winner.

I’ve been waiting to write this one. Here goes.

First things first, please stop asking for location access, it’s not happening. I am not sure why I can’t say no to location access once and for all. And yes I am reporting it.

Saavn was the first India facing Music Streaming service back in 2007 when broadband was a luxury commodity in India. It was quite obviously focused towards NRIs, especially Indians in US.

This gave Saavn a chance to develop not just for Hindi Music but in a more language agnostic way.

Saavn asks the user to select the languages in which they want to listen to music. I appreciate this approach. I am not sure how most multilinguals want to discover music, but I’d rather keep them separate. Gaana, Google Play Music do the same too.

Saavn operates with no free tier outside India since a year and it has lost a few loyal customers to this move. I appreciate the move as that is how Music streaming platforms can remain profitable in the long run.

It is curious how Gaana’s team being mostly in Delhi and Saavn, primarily in Mumbai have shaped their curation. There’s a lot of Punjabi Music on Gaana as to a far more balanced touch in Saavn.

So, let the listening begin!

What I do:

I listen to Hindi music from all eras, from movies and albums, from every popular music label, every famous actor and more importantly perhaps to rare gems. I report back as to what a listener can expect from the platform.

Here’s what I found:

1. Saavn too has a ‘Surprise me!’ playlist. Seems like they looked at Google Play Music too seriously!
2. Old music is omnipresent. Kishore and Mukesh, Lata and Asha, Hemant Kumar, Manna De and Geeta Dutt, R D Burman and Laxmikant-Pyarelal. They are all here.
3. Finding old music is relatively easy compared to new releases first approach of it’s competitors.
4. Saavn pushes Indie music and has released a lot of singles in collaboration with artists like Prateek Kuhad.
5. Saavn also has it’s podcasts with ‘NoFilterNeha’ being a fan favorite.
6. Oh, Nucleya’s Bass Rani is here. Dualist Inquiry’s Doppelganger is here.
7. Though, Maati baani is not. Neither is Sulk Station.
8. Radios are abundant. You are at almost a stage where there are too many radios to choose from.
9. Discovery is nice with Related Artists and plenty of sort options(a feature I miss in Spotify too).
10. Artist management is very good. Artist profile is a nice touch.

Seems Saavn knows where they want to go and are on a path.

This is the seventh 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.

Saavn is here to stay in your pocket.

Saavn has a lot of potential, their focus accurate. With Wynk and Gaana coming from Indian Business powerhouses like Bharti Airtel and Times Group, Saavn has it’s work cut out for it. Not to forget Hungama, though a distant fourth, Hungama still has it’s importance in the market.

They have handled it well, yet. Let’s see how it goes.

Signing off!