Saavn Launches Music App On Facebook

US-based Saavn (which stands for South Asian Audio Video Network), a five year old digital media start-up for Indian music, has launched its music service on social networking site Facebook.

Saavn launched on Facebook in December and has since then added over 700,000 new Facebook users to the network, according to Techcrunch.

Last we checked, the app had 1.37 million Likes on Facebook.

Founded in 2006 by three USA-based entrepreneurs, Vin Bhat, Neal Shenoy and Paramdeep Singh, Saavn, has partnered with New York-based parent company 212Media (also founded by Bhat, Shenoy, and Singh), Indian company Hungama, and Schramm Sports & Entertainment. An alumnus of Tufts University, Singh has also been associated with [212]Media, Sportsvite.com, Grace Drive Management Corp, BODVOD Networks, LLC and Bhai Records. On the other hand, a passout of Georgetown University, Shenoy worked with Donaldson, Lufkin & Jenrette and Simile previously.

The Facebook app allows users to discover and share music from their Facebook Timeline, Ticker and News Feed. In addition, it has also struck global distribution deals with its content partners so that music can be streamed to any location. The service is available globally with users from 219 countries.

Saavn is an online South Asian music service that largely banks on Indian music catalogue. It is available on the Web, iOS and Android platforms. Its entire music library is free for users and the company's business model is tied to targeted display and rich media ads.

It offers everything from the latest hits to hard-to-find classics with simple search of either a song title, singer, album, actor, music director or year.

It allows users to create and save playlists with a free Saavn account or use Saavn's built-in Facebook and Twitter connect to share latest music finds with friends and followers.

While it provides yet another means for Saavn to expand its reach, it also allows Facebook to drive its penetration rate in India. Facebook had 46 million monthly active users (MAUs) in India as of December 31, 2011, an increase of 132 per cent from the previous year. The growth is impressive but not as much as in the other so called Orkut dominated market of Brazil. Facebook had 37 million MAUs in Brazil as of December 31, 2011, an increase of 268 per cent in the year. At this rate Brazil could well surpass India as a market sometime in 2012. In India Facebook has a penetration rate of approximately 20-30 per cent of the Internet users base. More on Facebook in India here.