Vi (formerly Vodafone Idea) announced on Monday its partnership with Hungama Music to launch a music streaming offering through its dedicated Vi app. Under the partnership, Vi prepaid and postpaid users will get six months of free Hungama Premium subscription that will bring ad-free music content in 20 languages in various genres from the Hungama library of songs. Vi subscribers also get the chance to attend 52 live digital concerts through the Vi app. The new announcement comes months after the telco announced its plans to launch a music streaming service for its subscribers.
As a result of the partnership, Vi users will be able to access songs and unlimited downloads of endless playlists, podcasts and music videos through Hungama Music using the Vi app. Both prepaid and postpaid subscribers to the Vi network will also be given the option to set ringtones while listening to their favorite songs.
“Our partnership with Hungama enables Vi users to access a rich repository of diverse music, across genres and in their preferred language,” said Avneesh Khosla, CMO, Vi, in a prepared joint statement.
In addition to streaming music through Hungama Music, the Vi app also offers subscribers access to 52 live digital concerts per year for a small fee. However, the operator has not yet announced the exact price for attending the concerts.
“We are excited to be a part of the musical journey of Vi’s 250+ million customers. Through our partnership with Vi, we introduced a first-of-its-kind Pay Per View service model to India’s exploding Premium Video On Demand (PVOD) market earlier this year,” Neeraj Roy, founder of Hungama Digital Media, said in the statement.
In August, Vi MD and CEO Ravinder Takkar revealed plans to launch a music streaming service for customers. That announcement was followed by the introduction of the new Vi app that integrates the earlier Vi Movies & TV app and also serves as an over-the-top (OTT) platform.
Teaming up with Hungama Music would pit Vi against Airtel and Jio. The former has Wynk Music as its own music streaming service, while the latter has JioSaavn to attract customers with a large music library.
