When Apple wanted to launch the iPod 22 years ago, the story goes that it didn't have to do any market research. Apple's engineering head Jon Rubinstein explained this away with a simple statement: “Everyone loved music.” After all these years, even as Apple stops production of the iPod, Rubinstein's words stay relevant in the era of streaming music. But just because everyone loves music, they are not going to pay for it. Especially in India, where the experience of listening to free music on YouTube is quite rich. In a way, streaming giant Spotify's problems are very similar to that of Netflix in India—how do you get people to pay? India has 200 million monthly active users streaming music, but only 1% of them subscribe to stream music across any platform. In these matters, Spotify is a few steps ahead of Netflix. It already has a large free user base that it monetizes through advertisements. And it has had some success with advertising, especially in terms of completion rates of the ads. As for getting more subscribers, it has launched plans for as low as Rs 7 or US$0.09 per day. But even after the opening up of platforms to advertisers or adjustments in subscription pricing, music streaming remains an extremely difficult business to nail in India, more so as Spotify lags behind local incumbents JioSaavn and Gaana. Read Soumyajit's story to know how Spotify is navigating the audio streaming waters in India
