Music startup Patari wants to be the Pakistani alternative to Spotify

Given the breadth of cultural and ethnic diversity in Pakistan, there’s no surprise that music emanating from the country is equally rich and varied. From sufi rock bands to Bollywood-inspired bhangra, Pakistani music has a lot to offer the world. Furthermore, musicians from the country have a long and proud tradition of exporting their music. Qawwali maestro Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan was recognized by CNN in 2010 as one of the twenty most iconic musicians in the past fifty years, while others such as Atif Aslam, Junoon, and Vital Signs have received other international accolades.

Unfortunately, for the past several years, Pakistani music is suffering from a precipitous decline. Due to security concerns, concerts and live shows are few and far between. Artists aren’t motivated to release new albums as piracy results in low amounts of royalty payments. Record labels continue to shut at an alarming rate and musicians are forced to look for opportunities to play at events that draw in the South Asian diaspora. There is negative growth in the local industry.

For music connoisseurs in Pakistan, the existing state of affairs is an extremely sorry one. With YouTube having been blocked in the country for the past several years, fans are unable to access online archives to stream their favorite songs. Alternatives, such as Soundcloud, do not have a large database of local music.

Patari steps in

However, a new music streaming startup, Patari, is looking to address this gap. Currently only accessible through invites, Patari has a large repository of music from Pakistan which spawns several decades. It aims to cater to all tastes, from well-known rock bands to smaller, independent musicians.

“Our initial plan was to create an online portal for Pakistani television serials,” explains Patari co-founder Khalid Bajwa. “It was only after we met with a senior media executive who encouraged us to look at music instead that we changed our original idea.”

By Pakistani standards, the music startup has enjoyed tremendous success since word of their beta launch filtered out. Bajwa claims to have sent out invitations for 20,000 people to access the site and several thousand more remain in the waitlist. Average time spent on the site is 25 minutes per session, and the team has uploaded over 30,000 songs so far on the portal. While it is currently free-to-use, the founders have a monetization strategy that they are feverishly working towards.

Bajwa explains that one of the key strategies of his startup is to support and financially assist local musicians. In what sounds similar to how music streaming site Spotify operates, the idea is to share revenue with featured artists, encouraging them to continue producing music. The founders are also speeding up their timeline to a mass-market launch, but insist that their priority remains on an engaging user experience and they do not plan to compromise on the principle.

“Initially we forecasted for around 500 users in the first three months of beta launch, and gave ourselves six to eight months for a public launch,” reveals Bajwa. “However, the incredible response has forced us to significantly alter the timeline.”