SAAVN UPDATE BIBLO

The Editor in Chief is in India at their corporate office in Mumbai. She will be coming back at the end of next week.

SNEHA MEHTA interview questions:

Some questions I want to address in the profile include:

-How the company got formed? How it started? The basic background?

-What the company has to offer? it's products and services?

-What's different about Saavn from other companies in the same genre?

-Who is the face of Saavn? Who works for Saavn?

-Upcoming projects

-Users and customers

-What Social Media has done for them over the years?

-Are they active in the community?

How social media and new technology has expanded one genre of music? How do South-Asians all over the world reconnect through this media form? The article will stretch from the background and formation of the corporation to what it is in present times and what the company wants to make of themselves in the future. 

Miss Mehta will also be taking me to the corporate office in New York City. Which still needs to be scheduled.

Done some basic background research. Waiting for the interview.

Bibliography so far: The sources so far used and some data.

"Saavn." Crunch Base. Crunch Base, n.d. Web. 31 Oct 2013. <http://www.crunchbase.com/company/saavn>.

“In 2010, Saavn partnered with Google to offer its music streaming services to a broader audience on Google Music India. Saavn.com was selected as a partner by Google in its efforts to direct users to legitimate content and help fight music piracy in the subcontinent, and to build up broadband usage in India via music streams.

In 2010, Saavn also introduced its first mobile app - Saavn Music for Android. The free app has a 4.5-star rating and has been downloaded over 1,000,000 times. This was followed up with Saavn Music for iPhone, which carries a 5-star rating and has been downloaded over 500,000 times. In mid-2011, Saavn added its latest app, Saavn Music for Chrome, to the Chrome Web Store.

Saavn has built a thriving Facebook community, with over 1.3 million likes on its Facebook Community Page. Saavn was selected in late 2011 to be Facebook’s first global partner and first Indian partner on the Open Graph platform.”

Mohan , Raghu. "The Musical Notes Behind Saavn’s Success Story- In Conversation with Vinod Bhat, Co-Founder, Saavn." Your Story. Your Story, 20 11 2012. Web. 31 Oct 2013. <http://yourstory.in/2012/11/the-musical-notes-behind-the-saavn-success-story-in-conversation-with-vinod-bhatt/>.

See Question and answer

Chamikutty, Preethi. "Your Story." Adding New Notes To Its Musical Journey – Saavn.com. Your Story, 11 04 2013. Web. 31 Oct 2013. http://yourstory.in/2013/04/adding-notes-to-its-musical-journey-saavn-com/

“Saavn started with movies because they identified a gap in the marketplace, but as they worked in the space and understood consumer needs, they realized music was an area where there were more problems that could be solved. “There is a lot of scope to improve the quality of music that people listen to. Most music consumed on mobile phones is pirated and the user experience is bad. There was a good scope to improve user experience and use technology to solve pain points,” says Vin.

This insight, helped Saavn shift gears. The distribution infrastructure that existed in India was not suited for  movies but made better sense for music. However movies continue to be a part of Saavn’s offering and can be opted for by users who want to.

Through all the offerings that Saavn has what they are trying to do is understand the consumption patterns of customers and their preferences better so as to enable advertisers on the platform offer relevant messaging to the customer.”

Vora, Shivani. "Saavn, Online Jukebox of Indian Music, Attracts Millions." India Ink Saavn Online Jukebox of Indian Music Attracts Millions Comments. New York Times, 06 June 2012. Web. 31 Oct. 2013.

“The 42-employee company, based in New York, was co-founded two years ago by Vin Bhat, 36, who has an extensive background in media and entertainment, including as an investment banker in the media and technology group at Donaldson, Lufkin & Jenrette and as the co-founder of Simile, a new media software company that advised Time Warner, the McClatchy Newspaper Group and Hearst. Saavn’s other founders, Rishi Malhotra, Anurag Gupta and Paramdeep Singh, are also media industry veterans.

Saavn has agreements with more than 200 music labels. Mr. Bhat said getting the companies to sign on was easy because they saw no disadvantages to joining and because piracy is rampant in India.

Saavn had three million users in June 2011, and that number has now jumped to 10 million active users a month in 219 countries. Right now, India has the most listeners, followed by the United States.”

Singh, Paramdeep. "Pirates and Profits: Three Reasons Why the Music Biz Can Finally Get Excited About India’s Billion-Sized Audience." AllThingsD. N.p., 20 Apr. 2012. Web. 31 Oct. 2013.

Labels are excited that they can finally reach audiences who are passionate about their niche content, thanks to the kind of targeting that digital platforms make possible from user data. It’s especially great for indie labels, who now have fast entry to market and an opportunity to get in front of the right audience, despite not having the major-label marketing moolah.

Thanks to the wealth of data digital music supplies, the Indian music industry can get the right music to the right people at the right time. No need to make assumptions based on demographic information or guess what people will like. Data provides the ultimate customization tool for an industry in which customization and understanding the preferences and tastes of the end user is key.

This is the moment the music industry has been waiting for; it can finally focus on its core business — producing music — while advertisers happily foot the bill. And users get to sit back and enjoy, share and discover for free.