Streaming price war hots up in India as Apple Music is the latest streamer to reduce its prices to ₹99/month (£1.10) from ₹120/month following price cuts by local music streaming services, JioSaavn and Gaana. JioSaavn and Gaana are well established and currently account for about half of India’s music streaming market.
India has the world’s second largest smartphone market and the potential market for music streaming is huge. The country has seen both Spotify and YouTube Music launch recently with monthly subscription plans of ₹119 and ₹99 per month respectively which compares to ₹99/month for JioSaavn and Gaana.
It is believed that Apple’s price reduction was triggered by JioSaavn and Gaana offering time limited promotions of ₹299 for a year’s subscription although both streamers left their monthly subscription rates unaltered.
| Indian Music Streaming subscriptions (in Rupees) | ||||
| Streaming Service | Individual subscription | Student subscription | Family subscription | |
| Monthly | Annual | |||
| Apple Music | 99 | – | 49 | 149 |
| JioSaavn | 99 | 999 | – | – |
| Gaana | 99 | 1098 | – | – |
| Spotify Premium* | 119 | 1189 | 59 | – |
| YouTube Music | 99 | – | – | – |
*Spotify also offer music streaming by the day at ₹13/day
Music subscription rates in India are significantly lower than in Europe and North America. A subscription to Apple Music India is ₹99/month which compares to UK/US rates of £/$9.99. As with all price wars it will remain to be seen whether the lower cost base of the local music streamers, JioSaavn and Gaana, will win out over the economies of scale that global giants Spotify, Apple and YouTube can bring to bear. It will also depend on who has the deepest pockets to fund further price cuts to achieve greater market share.
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