MUMBAI: After one year of its launch in India, Guvera, an ad-funded, free music streaming service has 6.5 million users, a library of 20 million songs and many partnerships. It has been a dream run for the company. With plans to expand in the Indian market, the company has initiated more steps. An example is the establishment of the House of Guvera, which has full-fledged plans to host live intimate performances with established and upcoming artists.

Guvera's head of business development in Asia, Ananya Amin spoke with Radioandmusic.com about how the year went for the company, new trends and much more. 

Guvera completed one year in India in November. How has the journey been so far?

India is one of the key regions for us. We had a great one year run with users, brands, and partnerships. We reached 6.5 million users in 10 months of launch. This is great growth and is a big number. We worked with 20 plus brands this year, we had great associations with Micromax, Bajrangi Bhaijaan, a partnership with Reliance, we distributed through their retail stores. We have a catalogue of 20 million songs in the library. It has been a great year and we look forward to more partnerships and reaching more audiences. 

What are the trends in the streaming ecosystem in India that you have noticed in India?

This year, awareness has played a key role. It was in terms of evolving smartphones, improving telecom and better internet services that are being offered. With all these resources, we are able to cater content faster and easily. We see more and more people are leaning toward streaming.

Companies are trying to evolve content in the regional space. How is it working for Guvera?

Regional space is growing and we are taking steps in that direction, we have planned to sign three regional labels. To be a more regional label is part of our strategy in the market, we want to become the best app funded entertainment platform combining listeners and music. We want to get more and more labels and content for users. We are doing well in South India. We are looking forward to more deals with regional companies.

How well has ad based revenue done so far for Guvera?

In terms of eco-system and competitors, what happens is usually many people don't want to pay for music. Guvera is all about free access, we are working with brands, our focus has always been an ad-funded model. We hold good offerings and solutions for brands, on how we want to target the listening audience, which is native and seamless. Harley Davidson and Yes Bank have been some of the key brands.

There are multiple apps to cater content to the audience in the market, and how are promotion and marketing strategies done in Guvera? 

For Guvera, it is all about connecting with the right audience, be it online or offline, we reach mostly through digital. We had the University Stream Off contest, we created a dedicated playlist around the universities, winners of the contest were eligible towards a significant sponsorship offering from Guvera towards their annual festival, and other gratifications. Whoever streamed the most, we worked in many areas with them, it worked well with us. On the ground promotion and marketing helps us to connect with the audience and show them features, it is a complete experience. Marketing has been all about experience and reaching the right audience.

Prepaid subscribers and expensive data plans have been obstacles in the country. What changes do you think will Reliance Jio bring?

We have a unique buffering technology, for example; once you stream the song for the first time and the next time you play, it does not consume much data. That is inbuilt and part of what we do. The consumer does not end up using more data. We are looking at many partnerships with telcos to give more incentives to customers.

You have had an association with e-commerce brand Amazon, are there any further plans to associate with more brands?

We worked with Amazon, which was giving discounts and coupons to Guvera customers. We make it seamless for customers, while they are listening to music, they can explore a deal with an e-commerce website, listen to their favourite music. It is a space where we get brands, listeners together and cater the best of music. There is a lot of content being consumed and as long it is relevant, people will consume it. 

You have established one office in Delhi. What is the progress for other cities and the House of Guvera?

We opened an office in Delhi. We have planned to open House of Guvera, to get more brands, get an artist involved, and get local content. We started with three employees, now we are 13 people working. We are still looking for best place to come out. And we are working on future plans to ensure the growth of the company in the Asian market.