Amazon’s music streaming service launched in India under Prime offering

Amazon Prime Music is available for Android and iOS mobile platforms alongwith desktop app and Web player.

E-commerce firm Amazon on Wednesday launched its online music streaming service in India under its Prime offering. Under Amazon Prime, the company offers a bouquet of services such as video streaming and faster delivery options for its online retail customers. The music service, which will be available in various languages including English, Hindi, Tamil, Punjabi, Bengali, Kannada, and Telugu, will compete with the likes of Bharti Airtel’s Wynk Music, Reliance’s Jio Music, Idea Music among others.

A report released by Deloitte last year titled ‘Digital Media: Rise of On-demand Content’ pegged that the Indian digital music industry revenue is expected to reach Rs 3,100 crore in 2020, compared with Rs 500 crore in 2013 and an estimated 1,300 crore in 2017. Similarly, the report noted, that online music users are likely to reach 27.3 crore by 2019-20, compared with 2014-15 estimate of 2.7 crore and 2017-18 estimate of 13.7 crore users.

Telecom operators are offering over-the-top apps for services such as streaming videos, music and games as an effort to reduce churn in the sector at a time when they are competing on low-tariffs. The ad-free Prime Music service will be a part of the Amazon Prime offering, which costs Rs 999 per year. Compared with this, the music services offered by telecom operators are free of charge but are monetised through ads. Tech majors Apple and Google also have their music streaming services, for which they charge Rs 120 per month and Rs 99 per month, respectively. Further, there are various standalone music streaming services operating in India as well, such as Gaana and Saavn.