Gaana launches offline feature 'smart downloads', streaming space competition heats up

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Indian music streaming platform Gaana on July 11 launched a new feature called 'Smart Downloads'.

The new feature will automatically download the user's favourite tracks based on the listening history and will not require a consistent internet connection.

To be automatically available for Gaana+ users on Android and iOS, the company added the feature will not use phone memory if the user does not have sufficient space on their device.

Gaana, which has 100 million monthly active users, said that the company has been testing the feature in phases in March. "The company will continue to improve this feature over time," said Gaana CEO Prashan Agarwal.

Gaana is however not the lone ranger in this space. The online music space is heating up with big players wooing listeners with new features. YouTube Music, for example, also announced something similar.

YouTube’s mixtape feature will download 500 songs and gives users control by allowing them to set a limit over how much music the feature would pull down. This app, however, requires a wi-fi connection to be completed.

Shradha Agarwal, COO at digital marketing agency Grapes Digital explained the intense competition between the over-the-top music (OTT) in an interview with Moneycontrol.

"YouTube Music, launched in March, in the first week crossed the three million downloads, against Spotify which touched the one million downloads mark in the same period," she said.

She added, "is remarkable because we have 150 million music streamers in India, of which, 80 million use Gaana. Thus, crossing the three million mark is great."

It looks like the global players are also emerging as tough competition to home-grown companies. A recent survey by Bank of America, Merrill Lynch and SimilarWeb found that listeners spend as much as 10.8 minutes on YouTube Music and 10.4 minutes on Spotify.