One of India’s leading music streaming apps, Saavn, has hired Gaurav Wadhwa as Vice President of Entertainment and Original Content.
Wadhwa, who was previously Senior Marketing Consultant at PepsiCo, brings over a decade’s worth of experience working with brands such as Red Bull, MTV, Mountain Dew, and Pepsi.
Based out of Mumbai, Wadhwa is tasked with overseeing development of Saavn’s moves into new genres, as well as sports, comedy and other entertainment channels.
“Gaurav’s award-winning experience, combined with his genuine passion for music, culture, and technology, makes him absolutely ideal to lead Saavn’s Music+ initiatives,” said Paramdeep Singh, Saavn’s Co-founder and Executive Chairman.
“It’s not every day that you get to create a whole new category from scratch.”
Gaurav Wadhwa, saavn
“I am enormously excited to join Saavn and work with some of India’s most talented content creators and entertainment platforms to create a next generation media-tech brand.
“It’s not everyday that you get to create a whole new category from scratch, but that’s the kind of incredible opportunity we have at Saavn,” Wadhwa said.
In July, Saavn announced that it had surpassed 14m users as it took on $100m in funding.
Subscription streaming income was almost cut in half in India last year, down 42% from US $21.4m to $12.3m.
Meanwhile, free streaming services were up 108.1% in value terms in 2014 according to the IFPI, to $22.72m.Music Business Worldwide
