Vodafone India has launched a new subscription-based music streaming service called Vodafone Music. The service, powered by Hungama, lets users stream music or videos for free or download them at nominal costs. The service can be accessed by Vodafone users via their mobile browsers at vodafonemusic.in or by downloading the Android app from the Google Play Store. Additionally, one can also SMS ‘Music’ to 111 to get more details about the service.
Vodafone Music charges start from Rs 3 for downloading a single song, Rs 10 for five songs and also offers subscription packs— Rs 29 for unlimited downloading for a week and Rs 99 for unlimited downloads for a month.
The Android app also offers certain exclusive features like the ability to add widgets, cloud sync, playlist sharing, predictive search and others.
It is an interesting step forward on the part of Vodafone India, but it won’t be easy making its mark. Competition is high and it will be up against established services like Dhingana, Gaana and Saavn among others. But what Vodafone has going for it is the pricing— where premium services like Saavn Pro charge Rs 220 per month for up to 3GB worth of music downloads, Dhingana Gold charges Rs 120 per month for unlimited downloads and Gaana charges Rs 170 per month for the same, Vodafone India will only charge Rs 99 per month for unlimited downloads.
By partnering with Hungama, Vodafone India is essentially taking advantage of Hungama’s ready music and video database and subsidizing the rates charged by the former. Hungama’s own premium service charges Rs 10 per song, Rs 20 for four songs, Rs 50 for ten songs and charges Rs 99 per month for unlimited music and video streaming.
