In March this year, Saavn announced its merger with JioMusic, the music-streaming platform of Reliance Jio (and by extension, Reliance Industries Limited). At the time of the merger, RIL had said that its primary goal would be to make the combined platform one of the largest streaming services in the world. Now, it seems that the company is ready to take the first step towards the realization of that goal.
According to a report by Telecom Talk, JioMusic has been confirmed to be rebranded to JioSaavn, which will be Reliance’s flagship music streaming platform. The news comes roughly three weeks after some Reliance Jio subscribers reportedly started receiving 90 days of ‘Saavn Pro’ subscription upon registering on Saavn for the first time using their Jio mobile numbers, leading to speculation of an imminent rebrand.
While the robust infrastructure of Jio and the large music catalog of Saavn are sure to result in an overall great streaming platform, unfortunately, for users, it means the end of free ‘unlimited’ benefits.
As mentioned by Telecom Talk report, JioSaavn will be a subscription-based music streaming service, with a free tier as well. While Jio subscribers will indeed be able to listen to music for free, access to additional benefits like ad-free streaming and unlimited downloads will now require paying for the Pro-level subscription of the service. That said, Jio customers will initially get three months (90 days) of JioSaavn Pro subscription for free, which will them enough to test the new streaming platform and all its features. Once the free trial ends, subscribers can either pay for the monthly subscription, or give up additional benefits and continue streaming music at the free tier.
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While there’s no information regarding the monthly/yearly subscription charges of JioSaavn, they’re most likely going to be in the same range as competing music streaming platforms like Wynk and Gaana.
