Music app Gaana expects to break even in 4-5 years: CEO Prashan Agarwal

The firm expects to double the number of monthly active users on its platform to 200 mn in the next 2 years, representing around 50% share of the overall market

Music app Gaana expects to achieve break-even in the next 4-5 years with 100 per cent year-on-year revenue growth and traction of paid users on its platform.

The company is also planning to invest in non-music genre to increase the engagement time of users on the platform.

Industry will become profitable when 50 per cent of Indian people start using streaming apps, and 'paid music' as a model becomes the norm, Gaana CEO Prashan Agarwal told PTI.

"Our revenue have been growing 100 per cent year-on-year. We expect to reach break-even at this rate in next 4-5 years," he added.  

The Times Internet Group firm expects to double the number of monthly active users on its platform to 200 million in the next two years representing around 50 per cent share of the overall market. 

"In next 3-4 years, we expect 500-600 million users will start using music app out of which we expect 30 million to start paying for music. This will take music streaming segment towards healthy profits. We will maintain our share of over 50 per cent in this kind of market as well," Agarwal said.

The company raised $115 million last year, which includes $100 million from Chinese company Tencent and $15 million from Times Internet.

Besides music, Gaana is now expanding non-music content to enhance user engagement.

"We are basically focussing on content from motivational speakers, meditation, workouts, comedy and story telling. This will enhance engagement of users on our platform," Agarwal said. 

Gaana has also partnered with Google Playstore to launch an instant app for listeners who want to experience the app without actually downloading it.

"This feature is targeted towards the next 100 million users coming online. We have registered a 5 per cent surge in app installs per day as more people are realising the convenience of being able to listen to their favourite songs anytime anywhere even before they download our app," Agarwal said.