MUMBAI: Nearly two million songs will now be played on music streaming site Saavn, as it added 800,000 English-language tracks (available only in India) by partnering with Warner Music and EMI. In addition to this, it also announced the shift in the executive level.
The company has introduced Rishi Malhotra as the new CEO, while Vinodh Bhat who previously held the post, will be the president of the company. Bhat shifts his focus to strategy, partnerships, advertising sales and talent acquisition. Bhat will take on a new role as president and chief strategy officer, while Malhotra – formerly President – is now the CEO.
Malhotra said, “We have built Saavn together for almost half a decade, and we have always made the best decisions for the company. As we shift into a more product-focused phase of our growth, Vinodh and I made some strategic management changes. I am humbled and honoured to take on the CEO position. We have a talented team around the globe, and we are fiercely focused on building a great music streaming business for this very exciting market.”
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Bhat said, “It has been an incredibly rewarding experience to initially help start and serve as the founding CEO of such an innovative and impactful company. From the beginning, our talented and hardworking team has been driven to do what is best for our users, and we have always been aligned around building a world-class organisation.” Co-founders Bhat, Malhotra, Anurag Gupta (CTO), and Paramdeep Singh, will continue to serve as executive chairman.
Before acquiring Warner Music and EMI, the Indian streaming service had 1.1 million songs and has been partners with music labels like Saregama, T-series, Yash Raj music, Sony Music, Universal Music and Tips Music among others. Now, with Warner Music, EMI, Universal Music and Sony Music, the site will offer large variety of western music which other streaming sites fail to provide in India.
Malhotra said, “India continues to be the largest music listening population in the world, and we will continue to invest in bringing the best music streaming experience to our users. Adding Warner and EMI to our catalogue is another major milestone. Language and country aside, music lovers want the best music, and they want it to work beautifully on their smartphones. We are streaming everything from Coldplay to Led Zeppelin along with our unmatched catalogue of Indian musicWe want to be the first stop for music.”
