Product Adoption Lifecycle for Music streaming services in India

Product Adoption Lifecycle for Music streaming services in India A few years from now, smartphones and the internet were a luxury in India and only urban middle class and affluent people have access to it.

That scenario has changed since the end of 2015 where Jio came in with the offer of free data to customers for a year and then slashing the prices to one of the cheapest in the whole world. This strategy by Jio forced other players in the telecom sector to slash their prices to compete and other players who couldn't survive had to exit from the telecom market in India. This led to the penetration of smartphones in the Indian market.

According to the statistics shown by statista.com, the smartphone users in India have increased exponentially from 34 million in 2010 to 845 million in 2021 and this number is only going to increase soon in the future.

The use of various mobile applications for entertainment is directly proportional to the number of smartphone users coupled with affordable data.

Gone are the days when people required bulky cameras to click pictures and other devices each serving its purpose like a DVD player, radio, or a cassette player for listening to music, movie theatres to watch movies, etc. Everything is now accessible on a smartphone.

There are multiple music streaming applications that offer a plethora of options to users from all over the world. Some of the examples of music streaming applications in India are as follows • • • • • • • • • •

JioSaavn Gaana Spotify Amazon music Wynk music Apple music Google play music Hungama Coke Studio Sound cloud

According to the survey conducted by mint, an average Indian user spends almost 2 hours and 45 minutes per day streaming music on various platforms.

Where do Music Streaming services lie in the product adoption curve?

Product adoption curve or the Technology adoption lifecycle curve or Roger’s bell curve is a sociological model that describes the adoption or acceptance of a new product based on the demographic and psychological characteristics of adopter groups. Below is the image of Roger’s bell curve.

Defining each category of users Innovators – Technology Enthusiasts Primary Motivation: · Learn about new technology for their own sake Key Characteristics: · More educated · More prosperous · More risk-oriented · Strong aptitude for technical information Early Adopters – The Visionaries Primary Motivation: · Gain dramatic competitive advantage via revolutionary breakthrough Key Characteristics: · Younger · More educated · Tend to be community leaders · Less prosperous

Early Majority – Pragmatists Primary Motivation: · Gain sustainable productivity improvements via evolutionary change Key Characteristics: · More conservative but open to new ideas · Active in community and influence on neighbor's Late Majority – Conservatives Primary Motivation: · Avoid competitive disadvantage Key Characteristics: · Older · Less educated · Fairly conservative and less socially active Laggards – Sceptics Primary Motivation: · Maintain status-quo Key Characteristics: · Very conservative · Have small farms and capital · Oldest and least educated India, a country where people have traditionally relied on radio and television to listen to music, now has over 200 million listeners using music streaming services.

Since all the types of personas in the product adoption lifecycle are defined so coming back to answering the question, music streaming services in India lie in the Early Majority Curve.

Growth and product adoption of music streaming services A huge amount of the population of India is young, the smartphone userbase is increasing day by day, coupled with cheap data charges are

nothing but good news for all the OTT platforms and music streaming services in India.

However, most of the Indian population does not prefer paying for music streaming services which have forced many applications to adopt an advertisement-based model for non-subscribers.

Source: https://www.statista.com/statistics/922400/india-music-appmarket-share/ Product comparison 1. Gaana Gaana is the top music streaming service in India with a 30% market share due to its massive catalog of regional music. The huge jump in userbase came after Times Internet along with Tencent invested $115 million in Gaana in 2018. According to a TechCrunch report, Gaana has more than 185 million monthly active users which are just mind-blowing.

Screenshot of the Gaana mobile app Pros 1. Top recommendations 2. A huge chunk of regional music 3. Huge collection of remixes and mashups.

Cons The video library collection is smaller compared to its rivals.

Pricing Gaana+ is a premium subscription service that allows users to cache songs and playlists on their phone and removes ads on the website and application. Subscription plans are priced at Rs 170 per month and Times Internet is currently offering a 15-day free trial.

2. JioSaavn With a 24% market share in India, JioSaavn is the secondlargest music streaming service in India. After the Jio-Saavn merger in 2018, the platform got a solid boost and now hosts a massive music catalog and you’re free to choose from and stream over 50 million songs, be it western, Bollywood, indie, or regional artists in languages like Tamil, Telugu, Punjabi and more.

Pros • • • •

Lightweight and easy to use UI Huge music library (Domestic and International) Feature-packed Affordable annual plan

Cons Song recommendation is average compared to its competitors.

Pricing: Free, Rs. 99/month, Rs. 399/year.

3. Wynk Music Wynk music is at the 3rd spot in the music streaming market of India with a 15% market share. There are millions of songs in the library of Wynk music app and the quality of service and features of the app have improved a lot compared to before.

Pros • • • •

Best for Airtel users Limited music download under the free tier Massive library of Bollywood and regional tracks High bitrate

Cons Free Tier contains a lot of ads.

Pricing: Free version(contains ads), Rs. 29 per month and 299 per year for airtel users and Rs. 99 per month for other users.

4. Spotify Spotify with 15% of the market share in India is a bit unlucky in terms of customer base but is one of the best music streaming apps in India. The UI, music recommendation, collection library, etc. is just about perfect.

Pros • • • • •

Playlists curated by artists Song recommendation is best in class UI is lightweight and easy to use Podcasts are available Many subscription options

Cons • Spotify's home screen is getting messier with time.

Pricing: Free (Contains ads), Rs. 59/month for students, Rs. 119/ month for individuals, Rs. 149/month for two accounts, Rs. 179 for 6 accounts.

5. Google Play Music Now YouTube Music The biggest song collection in all the streaming services available in the domestic as well as the international market. The song recommendation is just the best in class. There might hardly be something that a user might not be able to find on YouTube music.

Pros • Lyrics support • Accurate preferences • Download and play offline option Cons • UI and policies keep on changing Pricing: Free (contains ads), Rs. 149/year for students, Rs. 99/month for individuals, Rs. 199 for 3 months and Rs. 399/year.

Growth Hacks by Music Streaming services 1. Free monthly or quarterly subscription This is a common strategy adopted by all the streaming services in the market, often to compete these players increase the period of free subscription to gain a competitive edge.

2. Aggressive pricing As the number of users is increasing in India, the music streaming services market is getting bigger and bigger. This has led to many players entering the market to ride the tide. In such an environment pricing is the major factor which contributes to acquiring a user base that has a plethora of options to choose from.

3. Adoption of AI to curate a list of recommendations for each user 4. Marketing campaigns that resonate with the masses 5. Providing bundled subscription This strategy is adopted by Wynk music, Jio Saavn, and Amazon Prime music where a mobile recharge for Airtel, Jio, or prime subscription renewal also provides access to these applications for a certain period according to the recharge amount/plan chosen. It provides access to users at no additional cost.

Factors and challenges for Music Streaming services 1. A large chunk of users still not converted to paid subscribers The users in India like to listen to free music and this forces the apps to give them free access often loaded with ads.

These ads often tend to spoil the user experience which leads to users try different better options instead.

2. The entry barrier to the market is low The music streaming services market is quite easy to enter, which has led a lot of players to enter the market each wanting a piece of the pie. Those with sizeable financial capacity can survive in this cut-throat competition whereas others disappear after a brief period of operations.

3. Consumer Loyalty Consumer loyalty is hard to find these days, as drifting from one product to another providing better incentives has become a trend among smartphone users, and retaining existing customers is providing to be costlier than ever.