Spotify enters India's streaming market

Swedish company, Spotify claimed to be the world's most popular paid music-streaming service offering free music supported by advertising on its app has made its debut in India.

Music- and video-streaming have been gaining ground in India over the past few years as high-speed internet becomes ubiquitous and adoption of smartphones gathers pace. With more than 400 million users, India is already the largest smartphone market in the world after China.

The launch comes as India's music-streaming market draws the attention of many global players, including Apple, e-commerce giant Amazon, and China's Tencent Holdings. Apple launched its music-streaming services in India in 2015. Last year, Amazon offered its Prime Music in India at no extra cost to members of its Prime program.

The competition is to getting heating up for Tencent Holdings-backed Gaana and Apple Music in the South Asian nation's crowded music-streaming market. Tencent Holdings is a Chinese Internet services giant based in Shenzhen, Guangdong Province. It is the biggest rival of Alibaba Group.

Chinese internet giant Tencent has put money of $115 million investment in Gaana India, is a music streaming service started by Times Media, the company behind the Times of India newspaper and tech incubator Times Internet among other things, seven years ago market with 80 million users. The company uses artificial intelligence to create more personalized services and features for listeners.

The mobile internet revolution has led to a rapid rise in the number of connected Indians, making music streaming the preferred way to enjoy the music here," Amarjit Singh Batra, managing director of Spotify India, said in a statement.

Spotify’s new offering free music on its app supported by advertisements, while a premium ad-free service is offered at 119 rupees ($1.67) fee a month. The company in January struck a partnership with Indian music publishing label T-Series, which claims to have a catalog of 160,000 songs. Lastly, the efforts to make money through subscriptions may hit a wall with the competition in India.