A year in India, Smule is getting almost twice the engagement than TikTok

A year ago, Times Bridge, the global investments and partnerships arm of The Times Group and Smule, the world’s leading social network for music announced a strategic partnership in India. And, Smule had a good year in India.

“We have developed a deeply integrated relationship in India over this period, giving Smule a decisive edge in scaling up its operations in the country. By effectively leveraging the network of Times Group’s media assets and facilitating long-lasting partnerships, we’ve helped Smule vastly increase its exposure to India’s diverse digital music landscape,” said Smule.

Today, India is Smule’s third largest market in the world. And Indians make up 20% of its active users who engage with the app for an average of 57 minutes every day. A range of high-octane collaborations with the country's best music properties, movies and labels helped achieve this.

Smule provides unique engagement opportunities to immerse in India’s multi-lingual music culture by leveraging best in-house brands such as Radio Mirchi, Gaana and MX Player.

Bollywood collaboration
Smule has also inked big ticket movie collaborations with studios like Fox Star & Dharma Productions. This has ensured that Smule's recall among music aficionados remains high.

Last year, Smule formed a brand association with 'Student of the Year 2' for a Bollywood singing contest where music enthusiasts won a chance to fly to and perform in the US with Neha Kakkar and Sonu Nigam. It also rolled out the country’s biggest talent hunt though partners like Indian Idol and Surya Super Singer.

The Smule Mirchi Cover Star IP, now in its second edition, had over 35,000 participants in Season 1.

A partnership between Smule and Apple for the latter’s premium reseller, Aptronix’s retail store launch in India included a Live event for the Smule community. It had live performances by music composer-singer, Salim Merchant and a live duet with fans led by singer Nikhita Gandhi.

One of the reasons why Smule has become so popular in India so quickly is because the app is home to an ever expanding community of users and artists.

“We’ve been proactive in on-boarding top artists - from regional pop-icons like Maninder Butter to gen-next rapper Naezy, we onboarded a string of new artists on Smule over the past 12 months. Shahid Mallya of ' Ikk Kudi' fame made his debut on the network & Darshan Rawal, one of the most followed Bollywood artists on the network came back with 5 monsoon-special song releases. We’ve made it a point to remain on the radar of our audience by curating cultural moments on key calendar dates and by running influencer campaigns on social media to ensure high visibility,” said Smule.