Spotify shares many of the same challenges as news media companies in India: It is trying to build its business in a large country with diverse populations that have far-reaching interests and opinions. It is also trying to protect its market share from other similar companies.

“It is not an easy country to build a business in,” acknowledged Amarjit Batra, general manager, SAMEA (South Asia, Middle East, Africa) and managing director of Spotify in India. Speaking at the recent INMA South Asia News Media Festival in New Delhi, Batra shared the “Spotify way” of growing audiences and building the business.

When Spotify entered the market in 2019, several players already existed and “many people thought we came late” to the market, Batra said. “But what I realised is it’s never too late to begin.”

Instead of trying to catch its competitors, Spotify looked at its long-term prospects and how to build its own category within the country. In doing so, the company set a goal: to make India fall in love with Spotify.

Courting an entire country

Winning the affection of the population began with an advertising campaign that went beyond letting people know who Spotify was; it also told people how to use the platform, he said: Too often, “we assume that everyone knows us and knows our product.” But Spotify created video ads showing how easy it was to find the right music, which encouraged new users to try it for themselves.

Instead of promoting a particular song, Batra said it promoted playlists for specific moods. He equated promoting a playlist instead of a song to promoting a news publication instead of a single news article: “You listen to a song for just a few minutes, then it’s done. If you promote a playlist, they’ll spend some time in the app, maybe spend 15 to 20 minutes with it. It’s about building behaviour.”

Similar to the personalisation used to attract and engage news media audiences, Spotify depends on data to engage users: “Spotify users have a very personalised relationship with music. Everybody’s home page is different, everyone has their own taste,” Batra said.   

To appeal to those varied tastes, Spotify launched the “There’s a playlist for that” campaign, showing the endless available possible music compilations. The clever and often humourous campaign showcased playlists for everyone from anxious startup owners to students to commuters to frustrated software engineers. It even used the campaign as a way to touch on social topics like arranged marriages.

That’s a wrap

Another way Spotify connected with audiences is through its year-end “Wrapped” franchise, which summarises the individual user’s music behaviour. “A lot of people were surprised by what they were listening to,” Batra said. “They share it with others; it became a cultural moment.”

Now even companies participate by sharing their playlists, as do musical artists who show what other artists they listened to during the year.

“This is a great example of how you can use data,” Batra noted.

Extending the reach

While music has been the primary focus of Spotify users, the growth of podcasts brought new opportunities as well. Podcasts were fairly new to the South Asian market, and unlike with music, there wasn’t a large amount of podcast content to work with.

“So we actually started off creating our own content,” Batra said. As more content became available from other creators, Spotify was able to focus on acquiring outside content and sharing it with users. Today, Spotify has 5 million podcasts in 13 Indian languages available, with more than 200,000 Indian creators engaged.

“We also realised we talk about podcasts, but a lot of people don’t know about [them], so we did a little bit of communication around it to educate them,” he said. 

Research showed many listeners use podcasts as a learning tool, so Spotify built a campaign around that. To further reinforce the power of podcasts and engage more users, Spotify has hosted in-person events such as its Podcasters Day, which it held in Delhi and Mumbai.

“We may be an app, but a lot of work happens on the ground,” Batra explained.

Monetising the model

The last piece of the puzzle is monetisation, and Batra said Spotify has two ways to monetise: subscriptions and ad sales.

While Spotify’s model on a global level has been primarily subscription-first, in India, users are reluctant to pay for music and the advertising model is stronger. To encourage subscriptions, Spotify has looked at the types of products different users might want to have and created the Premium Mini programme that allows users to buy short-term subscriptions.

“They may buy a one-day pack or a seven-day pack when they want to use Spotify for that week or day,” he explained. 

The company is also educating consumers about the value of music, as “India in general does not respect musicians enough. And I think that’s reflected in the way we don’t want to pay for music.”

Like news media companies, Spotify experiments with different offers and different pricing strategies, which helps pave the way for attracting more partners.

“There are lots of interesting things happening, and we can all learn from each other to get better,” Batra said. “And as we get better, the industry gets stronger.”

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