Pay to play: Gaana’s new hit formula

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Editor's note: The pitch is actually very simple—pay and get trending. Over the past few months, Gaana has been perfecting a new proposal for music labels and artists—they pay the company to promote a track and Gaana will ensure that the song is played as many times as required.  In fact, the Times Internet-owned company actually promises that opting for these promotions will get your tracks to appear in the trending sections of the app, according to two music company executives who are aware of Gaana’s pitch and do not want to be named. Gaana's proposal. On the face of it, this practice may sound harmless, as Gaana is basically doing what its parent Bennett, Coleman & Co. Ltd, one of India’s largest media conglomerates and publisher of The Times of India, knows best—leverage reach and earn advertising money. But look closely and the grey areas start to emerge. For starters, the bit about promotional advertisements being counted in the total plays of the song is worrying. This basically means that the overall streams of a particular song will include the ones …