Patari is the first proper legal online music streaming platform for Pakistani music. It is available on desktops, tablets and phones . It is a platform for Pakistani Artists to promote their music and make money.
The CEO of Patari, Khalid Bajwa, said that their initial idea was to set up a site like Hulu. Unfortunately none of the TV channels were willing to share their content. In a chance meeting with Faisal Sherjan, they were encouraged to give music a shot and that’s what they did.
The result is that a lot of people have forgotten about the music they grew up with and are unaware of the strides being made these days. Patari aims to change that. They’ve put the needs of the artists front and center and done their homework. Currently, they have signed deals with around 80 music labels.
The website is currently in beta and is invite only at the moment. They launched their beta program a fortnight ago. The Patari team says that they have only invited about 500 people so far. It’s quite clear that demand has been higher than the supply.
Patari has a huge collection which has been tagged and categorized. Their team has worked hard at curating the playlists. They are sorted according to genre, mood and decade. The playlists were quite extensive with loads of great tracks. I was also able to use the Music Discovery feature to create a playlist in less than a minute.
You can find all sorts of genres such as: Bhangra, Drama OST, Pop, Rock, Sufi, etc. I counted 21 genres in that list.
The interface is quite beautiful and well designed. Not only are the colors just right but the controls are quite easy to use. The navigation experience was a cakewalk as it is quite user friendly.
The web player worked without a hitch and streamed music in high quality. I accessed the site from my desktop as well as my mobile browser and tablet. It worked without a glitch. The best part was that most of the music I streamed was of high audio quality. Mobile apps are in the works, I’m told.
The user experience was quite good for a beta website. I was able to create playlists on the fly and favorite my songs with ease. The sad part is that I was unable to share my music. Since it is in beta, I am sure they will fix it before the site opens up for the public.
Their monetization strategy is quite simple. Artists get 30 percent of the cut from the revenue. They will be sticking to an ad platform to generate revenues. It seems like a very generous deal as Spotify pays pennies each time a person streams a song.
I was quite impressed by the site. The site shows a lot of promise and can be the next big thing if they apply themselves. Glitches are always part and parcel of a beta test. Once the site opens for the public, I’m sure Patari will get a vote of confidence. You can get an invite from Patari’s Twitter or Facebook page.
