MUMBAI: With an increase in the consumption of digital music, online music services are experimenting and innovating to create best products in the space.
Strengthening its foothold in the digital music market, Hungama Digital Entertainment today unveiled a new music app for its Android, iOS and BB10 devices. Keeping interactivity and search as its key focal points, the app comprises of several features giving users a rich audio and video experience from its catalogue of over two million songs.
A company statement said, “With the launch of this app, Hungama.com, breaks the competitive digital music market by not only bringing unique ‘never-before’ features, but also elevating your music listening experience by allowing you to watch videos and socialise while streaming your favourite bollywood, regional and international music.”
Related Post
Bringing in increased gamification and interactivity, a loyalty program feature gives users a chance to earn points through a redemption process. After the user reaches a certain level of points, they can be redeemed for song purchases and in return they also attain certain badges at each level. The feature rewards users for every action on the app.
The app consists of features like quick start, radio, social media sharing, video and more.
Speaking with Radioandmusic.com, Hungama Digital Media COO consumer business and allied services Siddhartha Roy said, “We have been a successful transaction service from past two years. It took a lot of insights to develop this product. We know people want to listen and watch songs and that’s the entire value set we have built into the application.”
Aiming to make a host of data available with audio and video, each feature is embedded with special technology and accessibility. The radio segment features a live radio and a celeb radio. The live format is pre-programmed and features stations across all genres including contemporary, bollywood, regional, classics and devotional.
On the other hand, the celebrity radio is curated and displays the hit tracks of over 20,000 artistes.
It also features other aspects like a live trending box displaying popular searches, a special discover mode where you can choose your mood and song tempo to create a playlist for the same, trivia tunes which provides small bits of information on a particular song and a lyrics option that gives users access to the song lyrics.
Phase II of the app will witness consumers being able to buy products like iPad mini and more through their points.
Hungama Digital Media CEO Neeraj Roy said, “Going by the increasing users on mobile and web based devices, we are excited to present this product. We will turn 14 next month and we are looking to increase the growth by addressing the rural and urban India backdrop in various ways.”
The app follows a subscription based revenue model and provides an audio and video song download at Rs 10 and a pack of four songs for Rs 20 on Android devices, and Rs 110 monthly on iOS devices.
With an aim to involve a larger number of consumers from urban and rural India, the purchase process is simple with the model based through operators instead of card based billing.
The company has now expanded its product offering on various platforms and has emerged as amongst the leading music services on the digital platform.
Last year, Hungama had entered into a joint venture with Catch Media Inc to develop a smart cloud based technology platform with audio fingerprinting for mobile and other web based devices. The technology allowed the platform to curate music for users according to the songs they access.
“We launched this in December last year which was a freemium model and it has brought us a good response from consumers. This in turn strengthens our belief that users are willing to pay for content and we continue to work around the same,” Roy added.
Moreover, the company is now also foraying into smart TV offering where users can watch tracks on their TV screens.
They are also in talks to develop a buzztop service on Intel laptops and computers for easy access to news, music, videos and more.
Roy added, “Consumption will be driven by this channel as well and this is just one of the products we have for the future.”
What makes the Hungama.com app better than current options?
Audio/Video Streaming & Download: Experience the joy of music like never before! Hungama.com app allows you to not only stream unlimited music, but also enjoy music videos. The app also allows you to buy and download entertainment content on your connected devices. You can even experience music intelligence with an add-on feature which brings interesting trivia and lyrics with just a touch.
Mood Discovery: Music that plays to your moods. The Mood Discovery feature allows you to play with different options like happy, party, romantic etc. If you love the choices, you can simply save the discovery list and replay anytime anywhere.
Loyalty & Gamification: If you love being the music ninja and beating your friends with your music knowledge, the Hungama app allows you to be a pro gamer with an exceptional loyalty program that rewards you for every action on the app. You can earn points every time you watch videos, play/share music, invite friends or even create playlists. Once collected, the points can be redeemed to download and own content, movie tickets, autographed merchandise, gizmos and gadgets and dinner dates with film stars.
Artist Radio: With over 20,000 artistes on Hungama.com, you have access to a massive music pool. Tune in to your favourite celeb’s music playlist on Artist Radio feature.
Social Music: The ‘My Stream’ option allows you to invite, share and connect with your friends online through social networking platforms and create waves of interesting music conversations online. My Stream also allows you to share your music and personal playlists; and continue to pocket more ‘coins’ upon sharing with friends.
The free-to-download application brings you an exhaustive catalogue of music tracks & music videos from over 2 million songs from Bollywood, International, Telugu, Bhojpuri, Tamil, Malayalam and other regional content. The app offers a superior user experience – better & faster play of music and videos, great imagery and a great search experience.
The Hungama music app is available on the iOS, Android platforms and a lite version is available on the Blackberry 10.
