Spotify vs Apple Music vs JioSaavn vs Gaana vs Google Music: A comparison of services

With the launch of Spotify in India , the music streaming industry in the country sees another worthy competitor entering the fray. Already with the likes of Apple Music, Gaana, Amazon Music, Wynk and more, the streaming space has become quite crowded, and with the merger of Jio and Saavn forming JioSaavn , the Indian audience has a plethora of options to choose from.

Spotify bags the title of the most subscribed music streaming platform in the world, dwarfing industry heavyweights such as Apple, Google, Gaana and JioSaavn. The main attraction to Spotify is its ease of use, elegant UI and a great list of curated playlists. Licensing problems aside, Spotify boasts of a massive music collection, which currently stands at more than 40 million and 3 billion playlists. Spotify tells us that around 30,000 tracks are added daily.

However, in a market as diverse as India, Spotify will find it difficult to serve everyone in a country as diverse as India. Apps like Gaana and JioSaavn offer music in more than 15 languages while Spotify is bringing up the rear with just content in 7 languages.

One place where Spotify has done well is pricing. Spotify has offered daily, monthly and yearly packs which start from Rs 13, Rs 119 per month (Rs 129 prepaid monthly) and Rs 1,189 respectively. There is also a 50 percent student discount available on the monthly subscription package.

These prices are laughable compared to what Spotify charges in the US, which is $10 + taxes for a month (about Rs 800). In India, we see that nearly all competitors are offering around the same price with Gaana and JioSaavn offering the lowest monthly rates of Rs 99.

Whether or not Spotify is a success is something we will see in the long run, but for now, here’s a comparison table which pits Spotify against its counterparts in the Indian market.

(Also read: JioSaavn, Gaana subscription charges dropped by 70 percent; to cost Rs 299 annually)