Reliance Jio is making a big bet on music streaming with the announcement of a strategic partnership with existing digital music platform Saavn. Jio has acquired a partial stake in Saavn for $104 million and the deal will see the formation of a new music streaming entity combining Saavn’s existing offerings with those of JioMusic. Reliance is touting the upcoming combined music streaming service as one of the largest media streaming platforms in the country and one of the biggest music streaming services in the world.
A press release shared by the company states, “The integrated business will be developed into a media platform of the future with global reach, cross-border original content, an independent artist marketplace, consolidated data and one of the largest mobile advertising mediums.”
There is no name yet for this new Jio-Saavn streaming service but the combined entity plans to invest aggressively in signing up new users, artists, music labels, as well as advertisers. Jio subscribers can expect to get special free access to the new streaming platform, however, it seems likely that the streaming service will be open for all to subscribe.
JioMusic currently has over 16 million HD songs across 20 languages. Saavn, on the other hand, has been around much longer than JioMusic and features 36 million tracks across 15 languages, with over 900 existing music label partnerships. The combination of Jio’s music streaming service and Saavn will also feature the latter’s original programming, ‘Artist Originals’ (AO). With AO, Saavn licences, conceptualises and produces original music with independent artist, so the new streaming service will serve as a platform for indie music enthusiasts as well. Jio seems to be gunning for an Indian version of Apple Music and given the telecom operator’s growing popularity and subscriber base, competing streaming platforms will have to be vary.
Speaking on this strategic transaction, Akash Ambani, Director, Reliance Jio, said, “The investment and combination of our music assets with Saavn underlines our commitment to further boost the digital ecosystem and provide unlimited digital entertainment services to consumers over a strong uninterrupted network.”
Rishi Malhotra, Co-Founder and CEO at Saavn, said, “Our alignment with Reliance enables us to create one of the largest, fastest-growing, and most capable media platforms in the world.”
Paramdeep Singh, Co-Founder and Executive Vice Chairman at Saavn, added, “Our partnership with Reliance reinforces our commitment to the growth of our label partners, the independent artist ecosystem, and the overall music industry globally.