Infibeam, one of the leading ecommerce portal and global music giant Sony Music Entertainment have today announced a definitive agreement, where in Sony Music has bought strategic stake in Infibeam Digital Entertainment Pvt. Ltd (INDENT). Under this agreement, Infibeam will hold majority stake in the company and Sony Music will hold a 26% stake post completion of transaction.
Indent, Infibeam’s subsidiary formed in late 2012, is a technology solution platform geared towards music labels, brands and OEMs. At the time of the launch, Infibeam had entered into a multi-crore digital service agreement with Sony Music Entertainment.
Last year, Sony Music had partnered with new range of Sony Xperia smartphones to offer “Sony Music Jive”, a service that allowed Xperia owners to download and stream music from a catalogue of over 2 million songs. Sony’s Jive is powered by Indent’s Music platform.
After the successful launch of Jive applications on Xperia smartphones in India, the same application was launched in Indonesia, North Africa and Middle East markets. The service was also extended to Sony VAIO laptops in 2013.
Shridhar Subramaniam President India and Middle East, Sony Music Entertainment said, “Indent fills a need gap for all Music rights owners. As the digital eco system keeps evolving, there has been a strong need for an independent technology company that music companies can partner with to build innovative services and offerings. Every content owner has aspirations to reach consumers and brands directly, Indent empowers these labels with a scalable and commerce ready platform.”
Sony’s investment into Infibeam’s Indent is a logical step forward given that it power’s most of their music offerings on Xperia smartphones. With growth of smartphones in India expected to remain high for atleast next 2-3 years, Indent has great market opportunity to rope in other large brands as well.
Sony Music is Indent’s biggest client along with INRECO (The Indian Record Manufacturing Company Ltd) and they expect to clock revenues of $3 to 5 million in the current fiscal.
