Mumbai, the place Hungama, now getting ready to close down its music streaming service, is headquartered. Photograph Credit score: Hardik Joshi
So lengthy, Hungama Music: The Indian streaming service is reportedly set to stop working this coming Tuesday, April fifteenth.
Music Ally recognized the quick-approaching shutdown right now, pointing to an official replace that the Mumbai-headquartered firm supplied to customers.
“Beginning fifteenth April, 2025, the Music Part will bid goodbye as we make means for thrilling new experiences!” the replace reads, continuing to substantiate the continued availability of films and extra on the overarching Hungama OTT app.
In the meantime, Hungama Music seems to have deleted each its X and Instagram accounts. And better-ups didn’t seem to have put out a proper assertion on the time of this writing.
However as famous by the talked about outlet, Hungama had simply pivoted to a subscription-only mannequin in 2023. ByteDance’s Resso additionally dropped its free tier throughout 2023 – and proceeded to shut down in India the next yr, when Airtel’s Wynk Music referred to as it quits as properly.
In different phrases, with regards to straight quantity, the music-streaming competitors is in some methods scaling down in India, the place Gaana was comparatively early to place ad-supported listening within the rearview.
Moreover, after extending its “Mini” plan’s size from sooner or later to at least one week in India final yr, Spotify did away with the shorter-term subscription choice in all markets this month. Now, India-based subscribers should spring for Particular person at ₹119 (at present $1.38) monthly, Duo (₹149/$1.73), or Household (₹179/$2.08).
After all, the developments elevate a number of urgent questions. Chief amongst them: Precisely how lengthy will or not it’s earlier than subscription adoption turns into the norm in India?
At the least based on one in-depth 2024 report, lessened streaming competitors or not, it’ll take years for companies’ paid-listening prioritization to translate into materials outcomes.
Per the 2024 evaluation, streaming platforms’ listener base truly shrunk in India final yr, when the nation’s whole on-demand subscribers completed at roughly 11 million. By 2027, the subscribership determine will roughly double, and whole business income will crack ₹78 billion (at present $906 million), the EY report estimated.
“We consider that for the subscription mannequin to realize its potential in India,” the doc elaborated, “platforms might want to work in the direction of making costs extra enticing and comparable with different competing merchandise, embrace in depth bundling and supply unique content material round artists to have interaction with their fan base.”
