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Online delight

April 04, 2012 03:51 pm | Updated 03:54 pm IST

Flipkart's recent venture Flyte is a boon for music buffs.

All ears: Lost in the music. Photo: Special Arrangement

This is the age of the Internet revolution. With Gen next opting to be more net savvy than anything else, many web-based businesses are coming up with new initiatives. Given the connection youngsters have with music, >Flipkart.com is trying to make a mark among the music buffs with Flyte.

User-friendly

Touted as India's largest music download store, Flyte is on a grand scale considering the number of genres it covers, the languages and the specific tabs it has created to make life easier for a first timer. The diversity is appealing and, most importantly, the pricing looks pretty decent. Of course, the relevance of the track to its market demand has also been taken into account.

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What catches the eye is the key tabs broadly ranged into Best Sellers, Bollywood hits, International hits, Regional hits: an amalgamation of various successful albums/tracks that fit into the genre. The price for downloading starts from as low as Rs.9 to as much as Rs.449. As you scroll over the album icon, the list pops out and, by clicking on any single track, the user gets access to all the details from the singer's name to the max bit rate.

Technically, the service has quite a few options in terms of music, user friendly information and, most importantly, a very good audio output. There is also the MP3 library, which requires a special log in whereas the rest of the tracks can be bought or downloaded as a guest user. Interestingly, even a remote language like Sambalpuri has got albums listed.

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What they say

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Ashwin Sreekumar Nair, Marketing (www.MySmartPrice.com), a price comparison website, says, “Flipkart keeps taking Indian e-commerce to new heights. Flyte may be the best thing to happen to the Indian music industry. Consumers can now download affordable music albums and have the option to preview songs, legally. Unlike iTunes, you are not bound to a single operating system or device. To amateur musicians and garage bands, Flyte may offer a common ground to the popular recording studios and artists. I wish Flyte is quickly taken up by the average consumers and more e-commerce sites take up similar initiatives"

Sarah, an MBA student, agrees, “This is a cool place to download music. I don't have to go through various stores or music websites as the navigation is quite smooth. Even the site response has been quick, which is very important for an impatient girl like me.” Rahul, in his final year B.Tech, points out, “I am a rock fan so I checked only that genre, not the entire Flyte services. What I saw was mind-blowing. The proportion of soft rock to hard rock to trash metal music is worth it.”

Overall, Flyte seems to have taken off to a smooth flight. But the path ahead will have various challenges given the prevalence of piracy and established music download sites. But if the delivery and service aspect continues to be as good, then Flyte will have started a new trend among the new age online music download businesses.

Says actor Tashu Kaushik, “Flyte has the right balance when it comes to quantity and quality . There is a sense of elegance and user friendly feel. I like the Bestsellers and Bollywood Hits tabs, as there is a good mix of albums and tracks. Moreover, the output and streaming is very swift and impressive. But this variety has to be maintained over a period of time.”

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