Spotify users in India have relied on a limited catalogue of artists on the platform since its launch in 2019. But that situation is going to change in the coming days, as the music streaming giant has finally got the rights to publish content that belongs to the Warner Music Group.
Both the companies have renewed their global licensing partnership which ensures music catalogues from popular artists like Ed Sheeran and Coldplay among others will now be available to Spotify users in the country.
“Spotify and Warner Music Group are pleased to announce a renewed global licensing partnership. This expanded deal covers countries where Spotify is available today, as well as additional markets,” Spotify said in its statement.
The platform has faced quite a battle to launch in India and continues to tussle with multiple music houses over content disputes, which has limited its catalogue for users in the country. The new development will help Spotify add new users in the coming months.
Not having content from WMG was seen as a deal breaker for many people when Spotify launched in India last year.
Spotify is one of the few platforms that caters to over 100 million paid users globally, unlike Gaana in India, which also has 100 million users but most use the free version.
This was mentioned in the latest company figures, which also highlighted that after becoming the quickest to get one million users onboard in India, it has managed to notch up another million over the last 12 months. However, it’s worth mentioning that Spotify hasn’t revealed how many of its users in India have paid for its streaming service.
While Spotify offers its freemium plan in all its supported markets, users in India on the same plan are able to access the full music catalogue, but it’s the only market for Spotify where users can play any song, for free, as many times as they want with this plan.
The free plan in general has helped Spotify increase its content hours per monthly average users (MAU) globally by 12 percent. Spotify competes with YouTube Music, Gaana, Amazon Prime Music and JioSaavn among others in the Indian streaming market.
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