Saavn

Saavn, LLC
Type Private
Area served Worldwide
Key people Rishi Malhotra[1]
(Co-Founder & CEO)
Vinodh Bhat
(Co-Founder & CSO)
Paramdeep Singh[2]
(Co-Founder & Managing Director)
Services Web and Mobile Music Streaming
Slogan(s) Pick a song. Every song.
Website www.saavn.com
Type of site Music
Registration Optional
Available in Hindi, Tamil, Telugu, English, Punjabi, Marathi, Gujarati, Kannada, Malayalam, Bengali, Bhojpuri

Saavn, LLC is a digital distributor of English, Bollywood and regional Indian music in over 200 countries. Since it was founded in 2006, the company has acquired rights to over 3 million music tracks. Saavn's signature products are Saavn.com, Saavn Pro, Saavn Music for iPhone, Saavn Music for Android, and Saavn Radio. Saavn offers free music search and streaming supported by display advertisements.

As of March 2015, Saavn has 13 million users, who can access a catalogue of over 3 million songs.[3]

History


Saavn was founded in 2006 as BODVOD Network and initially distributed Bollywood content in North America in a B2B offering.[4] Saavn later shifted its core focus to become a music destination for fans of Bollywood and other Indic music in 2009, re-launching its flagship product, Saavn.com, to become a B2C offering with an improved user interface and faster, smarter search capabilities.

Saavn has partnered with some of the most notable names in music and social media space. As of today, Saavn is one of the largest distributors of Bollywood and other Indian entertainment in the world.

In January 2015, Saavn announced it had hired former Google India Country Head (Mobile) Mahesh Narayanan as its COO.[5]

Products & Services


Saavn’s most notable products are Saavn Pro, its music service that offers offline listening without advertisements, and its mobile apps, Saavn for iOS and Saavn for Android.

In December 2014 Saavn partnered with Twitter to introduce a tweet-powered radio station, @SaavnRadio.

Saavn also integrated a social networking feature with its music streaming service in April 2015. Saavn Social allows users to follow the profiles and playlists of their friends as well as celebrities.[6] Users can share any song, album or playlist with their friends and chat about music real time.

Revenue Model

Saavn has an advertisement-supported "freemium" business model to generate revenue. Saavn's premium, subscription service, Saavn Pro, offers ad-free streaming.

Partnerships

Shazam

In 2013, Shazam, a media engagement company, entered into an exclusive partnership with Saavn. As a part of this, Saavn’s music library was incorporated in Shazam’s music database. Saavn aims to provide its users with an enhanced listening experience with Shazam’s music engagement tools especially in popular genres like bhangra, devotional, ghazals, Carnatic, Indipop and regional language music like Hindi, Punjabi, Tamil, Telugu, Gujarati, Marathi, Bengali, Kannada, and Bhojpuri.[7][8][9]

Twitter

Saavn launched its radio model in 2013 and later partnered with Twitter to crowd-source song requests via the custom handle @SaavnRadio.[10][11]

Apps for iOS, Android and Chrome

In 2010, Saavn introduced its first mobile app - Saavn Music for Android. The free app has a 4.2-star rating and has been downloaded more than 5,000,000 times. This was followed up with Saavn Music for iPhone, which has been downloaded over 500,000 times. Saavn for iOS has received 9000+ ratings with an average rating of 4.5 Stars.[12] In mid-2011, Saavn added its latest app, Saavn Music for Chrome, to the Chrome Web Store.

Facebook

Saavn was selected in December, 2011[13] to be Facebook’s first global partner and first Indian partner on the Open Graph platform. This deep integration with Facebook allows music fans to stream any of Saavn’s millions of tracks using their Facebook logins and to enjoy their favorite music from Facebook, for a seamless social listening experience. In the first three days of launch, Open Graph doubled the total amount of visitors to Saavn.com – and increased the number of visitors from Facebook to Saavn by 15 times.[14]} The service is available globally in 219 countries. Nearly half of Saavn’s user base uses Facebook Connect.

Sony

Saavn cracked a partnership deal with Sony to acquire Sony’s entire database of music catalog in 2012.[15][16]

Other Partners

Saavn has partnerships with other music labels like T-Series, Aditya, Tips, Unisys, Yash Raj, Universal, Warner, and EMI. Saavn’s brand partners include global names like Apple, Amazon, AT&T, Bose, Lays, General Motors, Nokia, Samsung, and Western Union.[17]

Brand Ambassador

Saavn teamed up with popular Bollywood actor Ranbir Kapoor in 2014.[18] He joined Saavn not just as simply a celebrity brand ambassador, but as a creative collaborator, teaming up with the company on consumer marketing ideas and business development.[19] The actor was reportedly interested in working at a more business-oriented level at Saavn. He has expressed his desire to help “guide the brand, influence programming, connect with the next generation of music listeners and ultimately help build the best music product in India and potentially the world.”[20] Their partnership led to the ad campaign “Here’s to Music,” a 30-second advertisement that was well-received on digital platforms.[21]

Corporate Social Responsibility

Saavn actively participates in philanthropy, and partnered with Akshaya Patra for the launch of #MusicForMeals. For every hour of music streamed via Saavn.com, the company helps provide mid-day meals to schoolgoing children, through Akshays Patra.[22] Saavn also works with The Internet & Mobile Association of India (IAMAI), a not-for-profit industry body that represents the interests of mobile and online value added services in India.[23]

Similar Organizations

References

  1. ↑ Rishi Malhotra at CrunchBase
  2. ↑ Paramdeep Singh at CrunchBase
  3. ↑ Rajan, Nandgopal (2015-04-11). "Saavn Social: When a music streaming app dreams of becoming Twitter, Facebook". Indian Express. Retrieved 2015-04-28./
  4. ↑ Ghosh, Aparna (2014-08-14). "Saavn-raises-Series-B-round-of-funding". Livemint.com. Retrieved 2015-04-27.
  5. ↑ Russel, Jon (2015-01-21). "Saavn, ‘India’s Spotify’, Reveals It Has 11M Monthly Users And Hires Ex-Google Exec". Techcrunch.com. Retrieved 2015-04-27.
  6. ↑ Rajan, Nandgopal (2015-04-11). "Saavn Social: When a music streaming app dreams of becoming Twitter, Facebook". Indian Express. Retrieved 2015-04-28./
  7. ↑ Smith, Oliver (2013-04-03). "Shazam Partners With The ‘Spotify Of India’, Saavn, To Improve Its South Asian Music Recognition". Techcrunch. Retrieved 2015-04-28.
  8. ↑ Rastogi, Harshita (2014-02-07). "Shazam and Saavn partnership expands to more Asian markets". BGR. Retrieved 2015-04-28.
  9. ↑ Saxena, Anupam (2013-04-03). "Shazam partners with Saavn to enhance Indian music discovery experience". NDTV Gadgets. Retrieved 2015-04-28.
  10. ↑ Russel, Jon (2014-12-03). "Saavn Partners With Twitter To Bring Tweet-Powered Radio To Its Streaming Service". Techcrunch. Retrieved 2015-04-28.
  11. ↑ Peoples, Glenn (2014-12-04). "Saavn and Twitter Team Up to Deliver a Crowdsourced Radio Station". Billboard. Retrieved 2015-04-28.
  12. ↑ Lewis, Alina (2014-08-04). "Five Spotify alternatives: Music streaming apps that work in India". Firstpost. Retrieved 2015-04-28.id441813332
  13. ↑ Varma, Vinuraj (2012-02-12). "Facebook Partners with Saavn Indian Music Service". datareign.com. Retrieved 2015-04-28.
  14. ↑ Rao, Leena (2012-02-16). "Eyeing The Indian Market, Facebook Partners With Saavn On Global Social Music Service". Tech Crunch. Retrieved 2015-04-28.
  15. ↑ SN, Vikas (2012-11-21). "Saavn Adds English Music To Its Catalogue; Sony Music & Universal Music Tie-ups". Medianama. Retrieved 2015-04-28.
  16. ↑ "SAAVN AND SONY WILL PARTNER ON FURTHER INITIATIVE ON DISCOVERY, AND EXPOSURE". Radioandmusic.com. 2014-12-24. Retrieved 2015-04-28.
  17. ↑ "Saavn partners T-Series, adds 1.3 lakh songs". The Hindu. 2014-05-16. Retrieved 2015-04-28.
  18. ↑ Sadhwani, Bhavya. "Ranbir Kapoor is the brand ambassador of online digital music company Saavn". Newsroom Post. Retrieved 2015-04-28.
  19. ↑ Walia, Shelly (2015-02-22). "Can India’s Spotify for Bollywood music keep on playing?". Quartz India.
  20. ↑ "Ranbir Kapoor teams up with online digital music company Saavn". Times Of India. 2014-08-14. Retrieved 2015-04-28.
  21. ↑ "‘Here’s to Music’ asserts RK Junior in Saavn’s new TVC". 2014-04-08. Retrieved 2015-04-28.
  22. ↑ http://www.akshayapatra.org/partnerships
  23. ↑ http://www.iamai.in/ourmembers.aspx

External links