Upon its launch, the company will install five local languages in its app.
After a lengthy delay, it seems Spotify will now launch in India as soon as January 31, 2019, according to reports.
The company set up an office in Mumbai in March 2018 and has 300 staff members there.
This comes after the music streaming giant struck a major deal with T-Series, one of the largest music and film companies in India.
T-Series has the world’s most-viewed YouTube channel, with 80.3 million subscribers and videos that have been viewed 58 billion times.
This ensures that it will be full of popular content. It has been reported that this deal gives Spotify a 160,000-strong catalogue of Bollywood and regional music, non-film music and content from emerging artists.
Spotify’s launch in India is a huge one as there 450 million internet users in India, with 100 million streaming music. However, only a small fraction pays for content.
The deal with T-Series will also benefit those from around the globe as there are over 30 million people of Indian origin living overseas. Many of those are living in major Spotify markets.
This includes the USA, UK, Australia, Mexico and Germany.
Around four million Spotify users from around the world listen to its Bollywood songs.
To make an impact on the market, Spotify hopes to expand into a variety of regional music markets in the country, where there are dozens of dialects.
Upon its launch, the company will install five local languages in its app. They are installing Tamil, Punjabi, Telugu, Bengali and Malayalam as they are dominating India.
Spotify’s Global Cultures Initiative includes Indian music hub Desi, which has over 930,000 followers and features popular playlists such as Desi Hits.
Spotify faces tough competition from Indian streaming services like JioSaavn and Gaana as well as Apple Music as they are already established streaming services in India.
To gain new subscribers, the company will launch with an extended free trial period. It is heard that it will be much longer than the 30 days of full access that was offered in Vietnam and South Africa in 2018.
The streaming platform has not yet signed with the Indian operations of Universal, Sony and Warner. It is possible that Spotify could launch in India without them.
This may be due to the fact that they are not as big in India as they are in many other countries.
It is said that Spotify will be hosting a launch party in Mumbai on January 31, 2019.
Spotify is currently present in 78 countries and moved into emerging music markets in 2018. This includes South Africa, Vietnam, Israel and the Middle East.
There are approximately 200 million users, of which around 87 million are paying subscribers.
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