Nobody wants Gaana

India’s oldest music streaming service has been on a hunt for both investors and a buyer. It has found neither.

3 December, 20218 min
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Nobody wants Gaana

Why read this story?

Editor's note: Basically, the music has stopped. And it turns out that Gaana is stranded, desperately looking for a place to park itself. For at least nine months now, the Times Internet-owned music streaming company has been on the road to raise money. For at least three of those nine months, it has been looking for a potential buyer, according to three people aware of the development, who asked not to be named. But, to the surprise of Gaana and many others in the sector, nobody seems to be buying its story.  This is despite the fact that Gaana is the oldest and possibly, the largest music streaming company in India. At the last count, it had claimed a monthly active user base of 185 million; there are internet companies in India that would kill to be anywhere close to that number. To offer a comparison, Instagram has around 200 million monthly active users in India. Being the brainchild of one of the largest media companies in India—Bennett Coleman & Co. Ltd, better known as the Times Group—Gaana also comes with a …

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