Gaana app brings '2 mn songs' to Windows Phone 8

BANGALORE, INDIA: Microsoft TechEd 2013 had some music for ears on Wednesday, as Gaana.com officially launched its dedicated app for Windows Phone 7 and 8.

"Gaana has about 2 million songs on its catalogs and on the Web, we dominate the market. It is available across platforms like iOS, Android, BlackBerry, BB10, Windows Phone and J2ME," said Satyan Gajwani, chief executive officer of Times Internet Limited, while speaking to CIOL on the occasion.

On Windows Phone platform, the Gaana app boasts of the Metro style UI and has songs from about 21 languages. "As in Spotify, one can download and listen to any playlist later and one can also bring in one's own MP3 to Gaana. We have about two million songs currently. Soon, we want to open a Gaana Apps section," divulged Gajwani.

Using the app, any user can share songs on social networks and also can access playlists and favourites from other platforms to Windows Phone. Another social feature is the user activity stream that allows users to see each other's playlist as well as add songs from friends' list.

Gajwani said that it is easy to find songs and even, sequences exclusively on the application. "We want to build on APIs based on user needs probably in a month."

Gaana.com is a free service, pitted against the likes of Saavn, Dhingana and MusicIndiaOnline, which was launched in June 2011.

As for their other service, Box TV, which is similar to BIGFlix, Gajwani explained that unlike other services, they don't pick popular TV shows, but niche ones with a limited audience. It's available currently on iOS and Amazon Kindle Fire, whereas its Windows 8, BlackBerry and Java versions are soon to be launched in India.

"You just buy the app once and can start using on any device. Moreover, it offers sliced and curated content, which takes about four hours per video," he added.