MUMBAI: On 8 July, Chinese electronic giant LeEco live-streamed American Jazz composer Quincy Jones's 'Montreux Jazz Festival' exclusively for its smartphone and TV owners. LeEco expanded to Indian market several months ago, and its elaborate and extensive marketing practices on the entertainment front began its execution with IIFA. LeEco also screened the curated performances that included John Mclaughlin & the 4th Dimension, Randy Weston and several other jazz and electronic musicians, courtesy to the pre-installed music app called ‘LeMusic’.  

On the unique initiative, the COO of Content LeEco India, Debashish Ghosh spoke to Radioandmusic.com elaborating further on LeEco’s short-term and long-term goals related to music.

The music app - LeMusic - will be powered by Hungama. Can you help elaborate what would be Hungama's contribution towards the app?

“We are integrating Hungama app on our Music Platform - LeMusic. But this does not mean Hungama will be the only Music provider on our LeMusic platform. Through the Hungama association, we will have access to their 3.5 million songs plus library - which has content across music genres. Hungama will also support us across multi-platform social media promotion as they have firm belief in our content ecosystem. We will also however bring in other Music genres and sources - including Live concerts, Live musical events, first releases of Music etc. And this will cater not just to Indian music (of all forms) but to all international genres as well.”

Montreux Jazz Festival was an encouraging initiative for the music fans from the LeEco family. Which are the upcoming gigs and music festivals that LeEco has already tied up with for streaming rights?

“In addition to Montreux Jazz Festival 2016, we have also acquired rights for The Paléo Festival de Nyon 2016 held in Nyon, Switzertland from July 19 - 24 July, 2016 which is Rock festival and The Verbier Festival also held in Switzerland from July 22 - August 8, 2016. LeEco #Supertainment LeLive also live streamed the Hellfest 2016 in June, in the rock music genre space. These are just the beginning. There are over 300 worldwide top Music concerts that we will bring to our fans and consumers - in the coming months. We are working across diverse content genres, creating a differentiated experience.”

Acquiring streaming rights of an international music festival does not come for cheap, and that shows the intent of LeEco. What was the nature of the streaming rights and the deal with regards to Montreux?

“Unfortunately at this stage we cannot discuss the commercials of the deal, however the music festival is streamed live on LeLive which is an application available on LeEco phones (and TVs - once launched) and once its streamed live the videos will be available on our LeVidi VOD App (again available for free on the LeEco Phones & TVs) for viewers to consume as per their convenience. Going forward we will also be launching our own apps that non LeEco users can download from 3rd party app stores.”

 Apart from Hungama, what are the other music platforms that LeEco has associated with?

“As of now we have 3.5 million plus library from Hungama that has content across music genres. The music festivals that we live stream will also be available on LeVidi for viewing. We are planning alliances and acquisitions of more such festivals in India and globally. In fact, one interesting proposition in this digital age and platform is that how can we make Indi music more global and we are working with our various offices across the globe for diversity.”

Would similar approaches be taken for Indian music festivals. Any names shortlisted yet?

“We are in conversation with all the music festivals across country to understand how we can align with them and therefore cater to individual taste preference as well as create disruptive content and content pegs. This will be a part of the overall strategy of content for India. We will unravel the details of the associations in the near future when we are ready.”

What other genres of entertainment have been executed under the SUPERTAINMENT initiative?

“LeEco's vision is to provide entertainment across platforms and our association with Eros Now, Hungama, Yupp TV is a step ahead in the direction. LeEco partnering with the niche, premium music festivals allows our members to watch their favourite International artist perform live in their own space.  We are also working with global content team to access material which we will curate to suit the Indian palate. In the near future, we will be launching our own content in the fiction / drama, non-fiction, sports, short and long films and music arenas as well.”

How important would music play in your ambition to reach wider targets? And how does niche and relatively lesser popular genres like jazz help in achieving that?

“Music is an important aspect in Entertainment, our Indian films are the biggest example of that. On the other digital platforms in the market also apps that give access to all music are the ones that have maximum daily active users across age groups. Music is consumed and enjoyed across age groups with their specific preference of genre. On Supertainment LeMusic our vision is to make all the genres accessible to the consumers. While Bollywood and pop is the most popular choice but Jazz, Rock and Classical music has niche audience and loyal consumers. Once they know that LeEco #Supertainment offers the music that is not easily accessible on any other platform - we hope that they would engage more and more with us - as enthusiasts of our exclusive and premium content offering.”

How does LeMusic work? What would be the consumer paying for accessing the several diverse 50+ concerts that you'd be streaming soon?

LeMusic is a Supertainment app which is available on LeEco smartphones. The membership cost of 4999/- for a year is the only one time cost the consumer pays at this point as it is currently bundled with the handset cost of Le 2 and Le Max2 - as an initial offer.

What lies ahead for LeEco on the music front, apart from streaming live concerts?

We are in the planning process of creating our own content which would include music properties too. We will only be able to talk about the overall strategy once we have  finalised the details.

On the priority basis, where does music lie for LeEco's strategic growth?

Indians have music in their everyday life and it is as much a part of us as living and breathing! Music is part of every occasion, function in India across  diverse regions and religions. LeMusic is an easy access platform to every LeEco user for their choice of music. With music content we believe we will be able to reach out to a wide target audience base on the preferred genre.