The online music streaming space is about to get much more interesting in India. Amazon late last month launched its Prime Music in the country, and last week, Spotify CEO confirmed that the company is planning to launch its music streaming service in India. Well now, Reliance Industries Limited (RIL) has announced that it is going to merge its music streaming service JioMusic with Saavn – yet another popular music streaming service that has been around for more than 10 years now.
Reliance has already signed the deal with Saavn for the merger of both these music streaming services. This combined entity is valued at over US $1 Billion, with JioMusic having being valued at around US $670 Million.
That said, Reliance will also be investing Rupee equivalent of US $100 Million in this merged entity for further growth and expansion, out of which Rupee equivalent of US $20 Million will be invested upfront. Apart from this, Reliance will also be acquiring a stake in Saavn from existing shareholders for US $104 Million.
With that being said, the founders of Saavn – Rishi Malhotra, Paramdeep Singh and Vinodh Bhat – will retain their roles and drive the growth of this JioMusic-Saavn combined entity.
Moreover, this combined entity will benefit from Saavn’s online streaming expertise while taking advantage of Jio’s digital ecosystem. With this merger, the combined entity is eyeing to reach over 1 Billion users in India and abroad.
Reliance in a press statement has also said that this JioMusic-Saavn combined entity will build on the latter’s Original Programming and Artist Originals for the distribution and marketing of original audio content.
Commenting on this partnership, 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. We are delighted to announce this partnership with Saavn, and believe that their highly experienced management team will be instrumental in expanding Jio-Saavn to an extensive user base, thereby strengthening our leadership position in the Indian streaming market.”
“Nearly 10 years ago, we had a vision to build a connected music platform, dedicated to South Asian culture across the globe. Vin, Param and I always envisioned the company for the long term with intense focus on products, data, and ground-breaking original content. Our alignment with Reliance enables us to create one of the largest, fastest-growing, and most capable media platforms in the world.” said Rishi Malhotra, Co-Founder and CEO, Saavn.
With all that being said, this transaction is subject to customary closing conditions. We should hear more about the developments on this merged entity in the coming months.
Do you listen to music online? Which music streaming service do you prefer the most?
