With audio and video streaming services gaining in popularity in India, Google is seemingly prepping to bring its premium streaming services to the country fairly soon. According to multiple posts on message boards like Reddit and social media sites like Twitter, subscription-based streaming services like Google Play Music and YouTube Red are apparently all set to make their debut in the country in the not-so-distant future. In fact, some of the posts on the aforementioned sites actually seem to suggest that users in the country are already seeing the prices listed in Rupees both on the Google Play Music mobile app as well as on the website, although, it doesn’t seem to have been rolled out universally to all users across the region.
What’s interesting is that Google seems to be fairly aggressive with its pricing in the country, seeing as individual songs are listed at around the 15 Rupee (22 cents) mark, whereas entire albums are quoted at anything between Rs. 95 ($1.45) and Rs. 135 ($2), as per reports doing the rounds this Monday. While not the entire Google Play Music catalog is listed with Rupee price-tags, works of popular artistes such as British musician Adele and Canadian pop sensation, Justin Bieber, seems to be on the list. While there’s no official word from Google on when it will officially launch subscription-based services for its audio and video platforms in India, if the latest developments are anything to go by, it shouldn’t be too long before users in the country are able to access premium content from Google at discounted rates.
Whenever Google chooses to bring Play Music and YouTube Red to India, the company will have to play catch-up with Apple, who launched its new music streaming service, Apple Music, in the country last year. Google will also have to compete with a whole host of local services that have been doing business in the country for some time now, like Saavn and Hungama. An increasing number of users are starting to subscribe to such services which have extensive catalogs of music in regional languages from the Indian subcontinent, like Hindi, Punjabi and Bangla. They also offer music and content from popular Bollywood movies, making them favorites among a large section of the country’s population. It remains to be seen how well Google competes with the established players, but with more companies vying for their eyes and ears, consumers in India are likely to be the winners in the end.
