A new report by Variety suggests that Spotify could be gearing up for a January 31 launch in India. It was reported in November that a licensing deal with T-Series, one of the largest record labels in India, was signed by Sweden-based Spotify. With this deal reported having gone through earlier this week, this could pave the way for Spotify to finally launch in India with a meaningful catalogue of music that appeals to Indian users from the get-go.
Spotify does have existing deals in place with various other record labels and could make the entire catalogue of music available to Indian users, as well as make the Indian content available to global users. The Spotify is currently present in 78 countries globally and has a reported 200 million live users on the platform of which around 87 million are the paying subscribers.
In India, Spotify will face tough competition from existing players, which include Gaana, Apple Music, JioSaavn, Google Play Music, and Amazon Prime Music, to name a few. While the superior global catalogue will serve as a differentiator for Spotify, much depends on its pricing in India, and how effectively it’s able to monetize services provided to non-paying users, which will likely make up the majority in India.