Gaana.com is planning to open up its API for application developers to create music apps, Times Internet CEO Satyan Gajwani said at the Nokia Music Connects conference. "We will be working with developers to use Gaana's music library as a base. We have a partnership with Karaoke Garage, which lets people sing songs and get rated. We want users to find new ways of engaging with labels." While he didn't elaborate on how this will be deployed, in our opinion, it's likely that Gaana will have to keep the apps within its own app (or website): it's unlikely that labels will allow third party services to use Gaana as a means to creating their own apps: they like to have control over who uses their music. Opening up its API will give Gaana a significant differentiation over its competitors in Dhingana and Saavn, but it remains to be seen what kind of an incentive application developers will have to create apps within Gaana. Monetization is tricky, but there is an opportunity for branded apps, quizzes, karaoke apps and contests, as well as curated playlists. During his talk at Nokia Music Connects, Gajwani, and apart from making a pitch for Gaana, by showing Google search trends, of comparison with Dhingana and Saavn, and calling Gaana the largest music streaming service in India, he also made a pitch for the streaming business as a whole, as a means to help labels combat piracy: "The real power of all streaming services, is that…
