Heard of the Smule symphony?

Why read this story?

Editor's note: No, we haven’t misspelt Smile. We mean Smule, a karaoke application which is the dark horse of the Indian digital music ecosystem. The US-based app entered India in 2016. And in just two years, Smule has become the top-grossing audio application, beating streaming apps like Times Internet-owned Gaana (No. 3), Reliance Industries’ JioSaavn (No. 4) and Bharti Airtel’s Wynk (No. 5), according to a March 2019 report by industry body Ficci and consulting firm EY.  Smule is backed by Chinese internet giant Tencent, which also owns the second highest grossing audio app, StarMaker Smule is fascinating, mainly because its growth has been quiet.  In the shadow of massive internet companies like Times Internet, part of India's biggest media company, the Times Group, and Reliance Jio, the telecom unit of Reliance Industries, Smule is rather discreetly building its platform, which is a mix of streaming and social media. Subscribers on the app sing along to popular tracks or with other subscribers and artists; it's a platform that's effectively centred on user-generated content, but also licensed music. Globally, Smule has about 40-50 …