Our focus will be on mobile monetisation: Rachna Kanwar

Radio City has been fortifying its presence in the digital space as well with some strategic moves. The FM player recently launched its web avatar, radiocity.in, where it will allow listeners to enjoy select terrestrial shows, along with exclusive digital content. Radiocity.in will see the best of terrestrial and web radio shows and will serve as the e-face of Radio City’s 39 stations. 

The licensed music streaming website will offer free music in multiple languages, along with 43 web radio stations streaming music across various genres. Recently added radio stations include artist radios like Lata Mangeshkar Radio, RD Burman Radio, Kishore Kumar Radio, Mohammed Rafi Radio, Dr Rajkumar Hits, KJ Yesudas Hits and Kamal Haasan Hits. 

In order to appeal to a wider audience, Radio City’s online content will be available in 8 languages – English, Hindi, Marathi, Gujarati, Kannada, Telugu, Tamil, and Malayalam. 

Elaborating on the digital strategy, Rachna Kanwar, COO - Digital, Jagran New Media, commented, “Radiocity.in will be an integral part of our mobile-first approach. It will allow our listeners to listen to their favourite terrestrial content, in addition to the 43 web-exclusive stations, right on their digital devices, wherever they want, whenever they want. Our new digital strategy will also see us adding more content across languages to our existing digital bounty in order to make the platform more relevant to listeners across different geographies. This will truly allow us to cover the kona-kona of the country.” 

Kanwar envisages that with increased smartphone penetration and broadband connectivity, this year will see a huge jump in media consumption online. “Video is fast becoming the preferred format of consumption and we are geared towards giving a multimedia experience to our users. Regional languages will see a huge upswing this year. As mobile traffic will continue to rule and will eat into the web pie, our focus will be on mobile monetisation,” she said. 

According to her, there are a lot of factors why internet radio continues to be in its nascent stage despite the huge potential of this medium. She added, “The primary reason is the huge MGs that the music labels demand, making it impossible for the players to have a sustainable business. The other is rampant piracy. Subscriptions to music streaming services will not see growth until there is a crackdown on piracy. However, the good thing is that audio monetisation is finally a reality with audio ad networks.” 

When asked how Radio City is placed as a web radio platform, Kanwar replied, “We have been the pioneers and frontrunners in this space since 2008. Radio City has created a loyal listenership base of music lovers from all over the world. All of our music is well researched and curated by music experts into playlists and theme-based radio stations. We have 43 radio stations and hundreds of playlists in various genres and languages. Most importantly, Radio City has a vast catalogue of its own audio content that we play on our web radio stations.” 

On her immediate priority for Radiocity.in and the kind of investment that the company is making, Kanwar said that with Radiocity.in, they have made some of their most loved properties available online. Gig City, Radio City Super Singer Babbar Sher and other such marquee properties are now just a click away. “We had launched our mobile apps last year. In addition to that, we have dedicated apps for Love Guru and Joke Studio which are available on all platforms. We are doing extremely well on social media, with some of our pages ranking at No. 1 amongst the radio brands, and we are at the forefront of social media innovations too,” she added. With mobile forming the core strategy for Radiocity.in, Kanwar said that the FM player has seen a huge jump in the traffic coming from mobile in the last one year.