Streaming services such as Saavn, Gaana and Hungama let users listen to music on the Web for free (with ads) and come with premium subscriptions that allow you to save songs for offline use as well. Even without the premium subscription, using a music service can involve a lot of time invested in setting up playlists and favourites, so no-one wants to keep switching between apps.
Today, four major players are trying their best to take the crown in India. Hungama, Gaana, Saavn and Wynk are in the fray, but which one is the best? We used each of these as our primary source of music for a time to find out.
Wynk
Airtel's Wynk is the newest entrant in the market, which launched in India last week. One of Wynk's strengths is manual curation - the playlists and songs you see on the home screen of the app are hand-picked - we found that Wynk's curation was in line with our taste in music, but that may not hold true for everyone.
Airtel's Wynk is the newest entrant in the market, which launched in India last week. One of Wynk's strengths is manual curation - the playlists and songs you see on the home screen of the app are hand-picked - we found that Wynk's curation was in line with our taste in music, but that may not hold true for everyone.
When we first fired up the app, we found it easy to find the songs we wanted - there is a lot of Bollywood music, old Hindi songs, hit international songs and classic rock music that is all easily discoverable through Wynk's curated playlists. Of all the services we tested, Wynk's default playlists served us the best.
Another of Wynk's strengths is its pricing. On iOS, Wynk offers unlimited downloads at Rs. 60 per month - half the price offered by competitors. On Android the pricing is closer to competition, but Rs. 99 per month is still the best price in the market.
However, Wynk is not perfect just yet. Saavn and Gaana offer music streaming and downloads at 320 kbps to premium subscribers, while Wynk has capped this at 128 kbps. On iOS, we were quite annoyed with the lack of support for iOS 7's back gesture (swipe from the left edge to go back, which is supported by Saavn and Gaana) as the tiny back button at the top is hard to hit accurately. The app also doesn't seem to remember the shuffle command - it kept the playlist and even the position in the song we were listening to correctly, but when we launched the app later, it had turned shuffle off. But these are still early days for the app and one can hope these things are ironed out as we go along.
Airtel talked up the fact that Wynk's music streaming service is completely ad-free and that Airtel subscribers can pay Rs. 129 per month to download 'unlimited' songs (Android-only) via 3G with no data charges i.e. the app won't eat into your regular 3G quota. This sounds good, but Airtel has included a fair usage policy. Android users on the unlimited plan can download 500 songs every month at Rs. 129 but data charges will apply if you download more songs. While the free tier has no ads, it lets you stream only 100 songs per month. Wynk's FAQ reads, "If you do not have active Wynk subscription, you can stream up to 100 songs per month." Honestly, all this sounds a bit too complicated for our own heads, so we believe the consumers may well be confused, and indeed, annoyed, when they realise they aren't getting what they thought they signed up for.
PROS: Good curated songs list; Competitive pricing
CONS: UI needs some tweaking; Hidden FUP; Complicated usage policy/ quotas; no Web view
PRICE: Free streaming (ad-free, streaming up to 100 songs per month; Rs. 60 per month (iOS, unlimited streaming and downloads), Rs. 99 per month (Android, unlimited streaming and downloads), Rs. 129 per month (Android, unlimited streaming and downloads, and no data charges for first 500 songs.)
Gaana
Gaana has a vibrant interface which looks more inviting than the other options. The service also supports gapless playback (by preloading the next song), unlike others where you'll hear a brief pause between two songs. This is a setting that can be turned off, but we recommend that you leave it on.
Gaana has a vibrant interface which looks more inviting than the other options. The service also supports gapless playback (by preloading the next song), unlike others where you'll hear a brief pause between two songs. This is a setting that can be turned off, but we recommend that you leave it on.
We were largely happy with Gaana's library, but oddly enough, some songs such as the ones from the Dil Chahta Hai album are only available via the website, and not through the mobile app, something which wasn't a problem with rival apps. A Gaana spokesperson told us that the company is working on a deal with record label T-Series to change this soon.
(Update: Gaana added T-series songs to its catalogue a day after this article was published, which brings its Hindi song library on par with competitors.)
The one real issue we have with Gaana is the way it handles playlists. Gaana stores saved songs and saved playlists separately, which means that if you've added songs from Gaana's playlist to your download queue, you can't quickly find them among your downloaded songs. Instead, you have to go to the playlists tab in downloads, and then find the songs you want. Switching between the different songs you've downloaded to listen to in this manner can be very annoying, and doesn't make sense.
Another issue with Gaana is that if you log into it via Facebook or Google to try the premium service, then it automatically follows Gaana users from your contact list, and starts spamming you with notifications about their activity. This can be turned off though after a little bit of digging around.
We still liked Gaana though, because its pricing is good - Rs. 120 per month for unlimited streaming and downloads. Gaana also offers a discount if you pay up front (Rs. 300 for 3 months and Rs. 1,100 per year). It is also available on all smartphone platforms.
PROS: Good looking UI; Available on all platforms
CONS: Buggy playlist system; App spams notifications
PRICE: Ad-supported streaming; remove ads and enable downloads for offline listening: Rs. 120 per month (iOS), Rs. 129 per month (Android)
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