Type of site Music streaming Headquarters Lahore, Pakistan Area served Worldwide Founded 2015 | Available in English
Urdu Country of origin Pakistan CEO Khalid Bajwa | |
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Founders Iqbal Talaat Bhatti, Humayun Haroon, Khalid Bajwa Profiles | ||
Patari (Urdu: پٹاری) is a Pakistani music streaming service founded in February 2015 by Khalid Bajwa, Iqbal Talaat Bhatti and Humayun Haroon. The site provides Pakistani music and is known as the largest music streaming service in Pakistan.
Contents
Background
According to the chief creative officer of Patari, the initial plan was to create an online Pakistani drama serials portal. However, when this did not succeed, the Jang Group’s Chief Strategy Officer Faisal Sherjan, encouraged Patari's founders to focus on music instead. Bajwa said: “Our initial plan was to create an online portal for Pakistani television serials. It was only after we met with a senior media executive who encouraged us to look at music instead that we changed our original idea.”
Launch
Patari was launched in February 2015 in beta version with a collection of 20,000 songs and 600 artists and was accessible only through invites and later by registration, which led to an increase in access across Pakistan. “We honestly just kept our heads down and kept working on it. Just another day in the life of a start-up we thought, and the next thing we knew, it was everywhere. People were sharing screenshots, making memes, trading tips on how to get invites and reaching out to us to tell us how much they love Pakistani music and Patari.” said Khalid Bajwa. Patari was opened for public on September 4, 2015.
Apps
Patari launched apps for iOS and Android in August 2015. It is planning to launch a Windows OS Windows Mobile app in the near future.
Funding
In 30th December 2016, Patari received a total amount of US$200,000 in seed funding from the investment firm Sarmayacar.
Legal issues
The Patari website comprised over 20,000 songs. In June 2015 EMI Pakistan asked Patari to remove all of its content from the website as EMI Pakistan holds licences for 60,000 Pakistani artists and almost 70% of the total music of Pakistan. Zeeshan Chaudhry, General Manager of EMI Pakistan said: “I am not against Patari. I am against any portal or platform that provides illegal music.” Patari and EMI have since resolved their differences and signed an agreement that places EMI music on the Patari platform.