Bharti Airtel has announced plans to shut down its music streaming service, Wynk Music, and migrate its users to Apple Music, as reported by Mint.
“We can confirm that Wynk Music will be sunset. Airtel customers will gain access to Apple Music, and Wynk Premium users will be offered exclusive deals from Airtel for Apple Music,” an Airtel spokesperson said on Tuesday. The company also stated that all Wynk Music employees would be integrated into the Airtel workforce.
This move will transition millions of Wynk users to Apple Music, enhancing the U.S.-based streaming service’s competitive edge against rivals such as Spotify, JioSaavn, and Amazon Music. In India, Spotify led the market with a 26% share of all streams as of March 2023, according to a report by Redseer Strategy Consultants.
Wynk Music had achieved over 100 million downloads on Google’s Play Store.
While music streaming in India attracts around 185 million users, only about 7.5 million have paid subscriptions, according to a 2024 Ficci-EY report on the entertainment sector.
The decision to discontinue Wynk comes after a strategic partnership between Bharti Airtel and Apple Inc., allowing Airtel customers to access Apple TV+ and Apple Music through premium Wi-Fi and postpaid plans in the coming months. Sources familiar with the deal mentioned that Airtel plans to eventually extend this partnership to prepaid customers as well, starting with postpaid and Wi-Fi or fiber broadband users.
“Airtel provides a comprehensive platform for all content and entertainment needs through Airtel Xstream,” said Amit Tripathi, Chief Marketing Officer and Executive Vice President for Customer Experience at Bharti Airtel. “This partnership with Apple offers tremendous value to our customers by giving them access to world-class content and entertainment.”
The demand for high-quality video content on large screens is growing rapidly in India. While Apple TV+ is currently free for iPhone, iPad, and Mac users, Android users need a subscription. Although Apple TV+ isn’t yet available on Android smartphones as an app, users can access it through a web browser or on Android-powered smart TVs, streaming devices, and gaming consoles.
