India’s Times Internet has launched the premium version of its music streaming service Gaana (known as Gaana+) on Android, and also updated the free version to 2.0 on the mobile platform.
Earlier this year, Times Internet released Gaana+ for the iOS platform, and also updated the basic Gaana service to version 2.0 there. The company says that user feedback to the changes on iOS have been “very positive”, and Android users have long been asking for the update. The new version of Gaana features improved search functions and easier ways to create and edit playlists. It also lets users choose the quality of playback based on their connection speed.
The basic free version of Gaana is supported by ads, but Gaana+ runs ad-free. Priced at $2.99 per month in India and $3.99 per month for the rest of the world, it lets users play music offline — tracks are downloaded to their device — while the quality of streaming is higher (at 128kpbs) and downloads come at a near-CD rate of 320kbps.
Times Internet has also recently launched a karaoke-style for Gaana, which rates the quality of your singing and allows you to challenge your Facebook friends.
The app, called SingAlong, is without karaoke visual cues but it does let users notch points for singing well (or perhaps less badly), and it gives wannabees a shot at being a star on its Champions page. You get to choose from more than 300 songs across 5 different languages and multiple genres, including jazz, ballad, R&B and pop.
SingAlong doesn’t require any songs to be downloaded, they are instead played back via streaming. You can browse or search the available songs, queue multiple songs and favorite the ones that you like.
There will be new songs added every week to SingAlong, and the app will be functional in mobile platforms in the near future, Gaana says.
The Gaana mobile apps have racked up 1.6 million downloads, and the service sees around 4.6 million unique visitors per month across all platforms.
It competes with the likes of Saavn, Dhingana, MusicIndiaOnline and Raaga in India, as well as a plethora of international services such as Spotify, Pandora, Deezer and Nokia Music. The service has the rights to some 2.5 million songs which cover domestic and international music from over 300 record labels worldwide.
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