Dubbed the ‘iTunes of India’, Flipkart’s new music store takes Flyte

Last week we brought news that Indian e-commerce giant Flipkart was preparing to launch its maiden music store, and yesterday Flyte finally went live in the country.

The store, which gives Flipkart more similarity with Amazon, the company it is often compared to, contains more than one million DRM-free MP3 files from 150,000 albums. Each track can be download at a range of quality levels, from 64kbps to 320kbps, with the latter ‘CD quality’available for 99 percent of the catalog.

The price of tracks, which can be bought individually, begins at $0.12 (6 INR) with albums priced as low as $0.51 (25 INR). Users are able to download each file four times in total, allowing them to put content on multiple devices directly from the site.

Standard payment methods, such as credit and debit cards and Internet banking, are available alongside Flipkart Wallet, the company’s own system, while gift vouchers can be redeemed on Flyte too.

Commenting on the launch, Flipkart co-founder and CEO Sachin Bansal hinted that this is just the company’s first step into the digital content space, so it seems we can expect more:

We had maintained that making digital content available was one of our focus areas and this launch marks our first step in that direction. An online music store made sense given the wide appeal this category enjoys in the country. Needless to say, all the features that delight Flipkart customers – selection, convenience and customer service will also be intrinsic to Flyte.

The site has been formed following the acquisition of streaming service Mime360 and after Flipkart purchase of a collection of bollywood content from Chakpak. Mime360 manages content for a number of the country’s biggest publishers and services, and together they give Flipkart links to much of the music industry.

Just last week, the company’s Twitter account suggested the company would move into ePublishing next, in what could be one of many new projects as it expands its horizons.

@Failgunner mp3, imminent future. ePub, near future. @slackerninja @udayvirgarg

— Flipkart (@Flipkart) February 22, 2012

Flyte has been billed as ‘India’s iTunes’ and its selection of local content will give it a strong advantage when competing the Web music establishment.

Flipkart recently welcomed new competition to its core market after retail giant Amazon rolled out Junglee, its first local offering in India. The service is currently in beta and lacking a number of features — notably on-site payment options — but it looks set to develop and offer greater rivalry with Flipkart.