eNews
Hungama Music pulls plug, India’s streaming scene shrinks
MUMBAI: Another one bites the dust in India’s cut-throat music streaming scene. Hungama Music is throwing in the towel, announcing its service will be switched off from 15 April, leaving users’ downloaded tunes and libraries gathering digital dust. This follows the premature demise of Resso and Wynk Music, making it a proper hat-trick of Indian streaming services hitting the skids in just over a year.
“Downloaded music and library content will no longer be available,” Hungama Music informed its users.
Resso, owned by ByteDance, blamed “local market conditions” for its January 2024 exit, while Wynk Music, owned by Bharti Airtel, effectively rolled its users into Apple Music after a strategic partnership.
Despite India’s booming streaming appetite – second only to the US in terms of sheer volume – local players are finding it a right pickle to compete with the global giants. YouTube, with its 462 million users, remains the undisputed king, while Spotify’s global clout and Apple Music’s strategic tie-ups are proving too much for many to handle.
Hungama Music, which ditched its freemium model for a subscription-only approach last year, clearly couldn’t keep up. Even a recent partnership with Virgin Music Group, aimed at boosting Indian regional music, wasn’t enough to save it from the digital graveyard.
“It’s a proper David versus Goliath situation,” a source close to the Indian music scene quipped. “These global behemoths have the cash and the clout to snap up users, leaving local players struggling to get a look-in.”
With only Gaana and JioSaavn left standing, the question now is whether they can survive the onslaught. Can they whip up subscription packages that are both tempting and wallet-friendly enough to keep punters from straying? Or will they too end up singing the blues? One thing is for certain, the Indian music streaming scene is proving to be a proper dogfight.
eNews
PNB partners Kiwi to launch credit-enabled UPI for users
Targets 180 million customers; RuPay card offers 0.5 per cent to 1.5 per cent cashback
MUMBAI: Swipe, tap, or scan credit is quietly slipping into the rhythm of everyday payments, and Punjab National Bank wants in on the action. The state-run lender has partnered with Kiwi to roll out credit-enabled UPI payments for its 180 million customers, marking a significant push to blend traditional banking with India’s fast-evolving digital payments ecosystem.
At the centre of the collaboration is the launch of the PNB Kiwi Credit Card on the RuPay network. The card is designed with a digital-first approach, offering fully online onboarding and seamless integration with UPI, allowing users to transact via scan-and-pay while accessing credit.
The offering also brings in a rewards layer, with cashback ranging from 0.5 per cent to 1.5 per cent on online transactions, positioning the product as both a convenience play and a spending incentive.
The move comes as UPI continues to dominate India’s digital payments landscape, increasingly blurring the lines between debit-led transactions and credit access. For PNB, which operates over 10,000 branches around 60 per cent in semi-urban and rural areas, the partnership signals a targeted effort to extend formal credit to segments that have traditionally remained underserved.
The collaboration also reflects a broader industry shift, where banks and fintech platforms are converging to embed credit directly into payment flows, reducing friction while expanding access.
With RuPay credit cards gaining traction and UPI evolving beyond peer-to-peer transfers, the PNB–Kiwi tie-up positions both players at the intersection of scale, accessibility, and the next phase of digital finance in India.
