Just as Indians had shifted from their Songs.pk and iPod music listening habits to music streaming apps like Saavn, Gaana and Wynk, Amazon launched Amazon Prime Music in 2018. The app provided free services to all Prime members and heavily focused on regional music. It promised millions of songs in more than 10 languages across India with English, Hindi, Tamil, Marathi and Punjabi being most popular.
While Amazon and Amazon Prime have been in the limelight for quite a few brand campaigns that focused on the large content archive of Prime Video and the delivery speed of Amazon Prime, it took the multi-national conglomerate almost eight years to launch a brand campaign for their music streaming app.
However, as it launches in August 2026, Amazon Music’s brand campaign finds its heart in nostalgia and one of the most common community activities in India – playing Antakshari!
Helmed by director Niraj Ghaywan and the creative agency, the ad showcases families huddling up on each other’s terrace during power cuts to sing medleys, house parties with colleagues, and train journeys with friends–every moment, divided in frames on screen but connected to each other through songs in ambient audio, reverberates through each scene as an inclusion of a game of Antakshari. What comes through is a medley of songs from across languages, generations and regions. Usha Uthup and Sonu Nigam also star in the ad as they join.
Now, while Amazon took almost a decade to launch this campaign, let’s take a look at all the brand campaigns that the other music streaming apps have launched over the years with this IMPACT flashback:
Gaana.com
Created by Times Music, Gaana launched in India in April 2010 as a desktop based music streaming website until its launch as a mobile app across iOS, Android and Blackberry in January 2013.
The music streaming app’s first-ever multimedia brand campaign was launched in November 2014, a whole year after the app’s release. Titled ‘Bas Bajna Chahiye Gaana’, the campaign was designed to promote its freshly updated mobile app (Gaana 5.0) and establish music streaming as an essential part of everyday Indian life. The main asset of the campaign was a catchy musical single composed by Amit Trivedi and sung by Benny Dayal and Anusha Mani.
Spotify
Global music streaming app Spotify launched in India on 26 February 2019, with free and premium options tailored for local listeners, as it includes multiple language options. In April 2019, the brand launched its first digital marketing campaign in India. Largely focused on OOH and digital ads, Spotify’s ‘There’s A Playlist For That’ campaign reflected quirks of Indian neighbourhoods and cultural nuances across Indian cities. While Spotify Global also launched a campaign about the app dropping in India soon, the app took its time to launch an Indian campaign.
Spotify’s first multi-lingual TV campaign ‘Sunte Ja’ was launched in July 2019 featuring Anil Kapoor and Ishaan Khatter as a father-son duo.
Saavn
Starting off as a catch-up television streaming network that distributed Hindi Cinema, Saavn shifted its focus to streaming Bollywood music and indie music for fans in 2009. The expansion to a digital streaming app in India happened in 2012.
The first brand campaign for Saavn starred Ranbir Kapoor and reflected on how music is part of every moment in life. The app subsequently made quite a few campaigns with Kapoor at the forefront, until it was acquired by JioMusic in 2018. Iconically, JioSaavn was one of the first music streaming services in India to be available on Amazon’s voice assistance, Alexa, in October 2017.
Wynk
Not many remember the app, but Wynk Music was an Indian music streaming service and a digital distributor in 14 languages. Launched on 1 September 2014 by Airtel Digital Limited, and the digital wing of Bharti Airtel Limited. It was available in India, Sri Lanka, and 15 African countries. It had a program that helped independent artists launch their music. It provided mentorship, distribution support, and the ability to earn from every stream.
Wynk harped on how music is for everyone in its first campaign that was launched in December 2014, showcasing the large archive of music genres available on the app.
Wynk might not exist in the market anymore but there are several other players like Apple Music and YouTube Music that have not yet launched their brand campaigns. Will they ever? Maybe. They might take just about a decade like Amazon Music did!
