Spotify Lite Beta App Now Live in India, Aimed at Low-End Android Smartphones

Spotify has brought a lighter version of its app to India that is built for low-end Android smartphones. After successful tests in markets including Indonesia, Philippines, Malaysia, Mexico, and Brazil, the 10MB-sized app that has similar look and feel to the main app is now available in beta for users in India. It uses less storage, making it an ideal option for older phones with limited capacity, the Swedish music streaming platform claims.

"When Spotify launched in India two months ago, we had committed to localising the app so that more and more people can listen to music... Spotify Lite Beta is a step in that direction as it enables users to play millions of songs for free, takes up less space on phones, and saves data when used on the go," Amarjit Batra, Managing Director India, Spotify, told IANS on Monday.

The lighter app can be downloaded separately and can be used either alongside or independently from the main Spotify app. It is now listed on Google Play.

"Our ambition is to be available on all platforms that make sense to our users, and make the music streaming experience as seamless as possible," Batra added.

Spotify Lite lets you play your favourite songs and artists on demand, discovers new music, keeps track of storage (has control over cache and ability to clear it), keeps track of data and works on all low-end Android phones in all network conditions, the company claims. The app works when the network is patchy, users are struggling with the Internet or for when they don't want to spend much mobile data.

The main Spotify app that came to India is February had amassed one million followers within the week of its launch. Spotify, offering more than four crore songs and 300 crore playlists for music fans in the country, is available across 79 markets. Spotify has 207 million active users and 96 million of these users are Spotify Premium subscribers. The platform adds approximately 30,000 new tracks each day. Spotify is available on over 500 products across 200 hardware brands globally.