MUMBAI: Music streaming services have gained a steady momentum in the past few months in the country and the very recent entrant in the Indian market is Australian service Guvera Music. The service that was launched on 6 November in the country has already become the top streaming service on Google Play Store, surpassing other Indian applications(when we checked it before we published the report) .
The international streaming service is available across web and mobile, and users can consume it via both the platforms.
There is only one subscription plan – ‘Guvera Platinum’, through which users can experience unlimited playback and streaming with no ads.
Guvera follows an ad based revenue model, due to which, if a user has not subscribed, they will be subjected to seeing a number of ads when they stream music. It bodes well for a market like India, where music streaming is still relatively new and consumers do not wish to spend on streaming services.
The most appealing aspect of the app is its user interface. With red display and easy navigation, it beats all the other apps available in the market right now. It also does not suffer from lag and is not a heavy application for smartphones.
It offers curated playlists with different options. Its featured playlists include categorisation according to different genres, types and moods. The service also has another option of directly checking out new releases.
Guvera’s catalogue consists of more than 12 million songs. On 10 November, when Pink Floyd’s latest album was released, Guvera was one of the few streaming services in the country that contained the album. Besides, it also made available Skyharbor’s ‘Guiding Lights’, which was not available on any other streaming service in India. Under Platinum subscription, if a track has been streamed, it gets added to the subscriber’s library and can be played offline as well.
One more aspect that sets the app apart is its additional feature of #Play. Through this feature, users can create or curate their own hashtags to compile their playlists. If a hashtag is selected, the app finds other music tagged with the same word. It works the same way hashtags work with other social media platforms.
Overall, Guvera is a decent music streaming service, giving a tough competition to the local services right now. Its fate might be dependent on the other international services like Spotify or Rdio entering the Indian market in the future.
