Saavn

History

Saavn was founded in 2007 as BODVOD Network and initially distributed Bollywood content in North America in a B2B offering. Saavn later shifted its core focus to become a music destination for fans of Bollywood and other Indic music in 2009, re-launching its flagship product, Saavn.com, to become a B2C offering with an improved user interface and faster, smarter search capabilities.

As of today, Saavn is one of the largest distributors of Bollywood and other Indian entertainment in the world.

In January 2015, Saavn announced it had hired former Google India Country Head (Mobile) Mahesh Narayanan as its COO.

Products and services

Saavn’s products are Saavn Pro, its music service that offers offline listening without advertisements, and its mobile apps, Saavn for iOS and Saavn for Android.

In December 2014, Saavn partnered with Twitter to introduce a tweet-powered radio station, @SaavnRadio.

Saavn also integrated a social networking feature with its music streaming service in April 2015. Saavn Social allows users to follow the profiles and playlists of their friends as well as celebrities. Users can share any song, album or playlist with their friends and chat about music real time.

Revenue model

Saavn has an advertisement-supported "freemium" business model to generate revenue. Saavn's subscription service, Saavn Pro, offers ad-free and offline streaming

Shazam

In 2013, Shazam, a media engagement company, entered into an exclusive partnership with Saavn. As a part of this, Saavn’s music library was incorporated in Shazam’s music database. Saavn aims to provide its users with an enhanced listening experience with Shazam’s music engagement tools especially in popular genres like bhangra, devotional, ghazals, Carnatic, Indipop and regional language music like Urdu,Hindi, Punjabi, Kannada, Malayalam, Tamil, Telugu, Gujarati, Marathi, Bengali, and Bhojpuri.

Twitter

Saavn launched its radio model in 2013 and later partnered with Twitter to crowd-source song requests via the custom handle @SaavnRadio.

Apps for iOS, Android and Chrome

In 2010, Saavn introduced its first mobile app - Saavn Music for Android. The free app has a 4.2-star rating and has been downloaded more than 10,000,000 times. This was followed up with Saavn Music for iPhone. Saavn for iOS has received 9000+ ratings with an average rating of 4.5 Stars. In mid-2011, Saavn added its latest app, Saavn Music for Chrome, to the Chrome Web Store and now it's on Windows App Store for Windows Phone running OS 8.1 & 10.

Facebook

Saavn was selected in December, 2011 to be Facebook’s first global partner and first Indian partner on the Open Graph platform. This deep integration with Facebook allows music fans to stream any of Saavn’s millions of tracks using their Facebook logins and to enjoy their favorite music from Facebook, for a seamless social listening experience. In the first three days of launch, Open Graph doubled the total amount of visitors to Saavn.com – and increased the number of visitors from Facebook to Saavn by 15 times.The service is available globally in 219 countries. Nearly half of Saavn’s user base uses Facebook Connect.

Sony

Saavn cracked a partnership deal with Sony to acquire Sony’s entire database of music catalog in 2012.

Other partners

Saavn has partnerships with other music labels like T-Series, Aditya, Tips, Unisys, Yash Raj, Universal, Warner, and EMI. Saavn’s brand partners include global names like AT&T, Bose, Lays, General Motors, Nokia, Samsung, and Western Union.

Creative collaborator

Saavn teamed up with popular Bollywood actor Ranbir Kapoor in 2014. He joined Saavn to collaborate on consumer marketing ideas and business development. The actor was reportedly interested in working at a more business-oriented level at Saavn. He has expressed his desire to help “guide the brand, influence programming, connect with the next generation of music listeners and ultimately help build the best music product in India and potentially the world.” The partnership led to a number of ad campaigns that were launched in India and select international networks, and generated more than 7 million combined YouTube views.

In May 2016, it launched a podcast titled Trial By Error: The Aarushi Files based on the 2008 Noida double murder case, in partnership with online entertainment content platform Arre.

Corporate social responsibility

Saavn actively participates in philanthropy, and in February 2015 partnered with Akshaya Patra for the launch of #MusicForMeals. For every hour of music streamed on Saavn, the company helps provide mid-day meals to school-going children through Akshaya Patra's network of schools. Saavn also works with The Internet & Mobile Association of India (IAMAI), a not-for-profit industry body that represents the interests of mobile and online value added services in India. In May 2015, Saavn co-founder and president, Vinodh Bhat was named as Vice-Chairman of IAMAI.

Switch to Subscription only service

Beginning in 2017, Saavn moved to paid only version on iOS, initially offering listening for free for 30 days and after that a monthly subscription fee of $3.99. It remains to be seen whether the company will be able to hold on to its subscriber base or users move on to an alternative.