Classical music, often deemed on the brink of decline in the face of rapidly changing music trends, is experiencing a renaissance with Saarey Music, a streaming app founded by Faraan Irfan. Coming from a background in telecom and consulting, Irfan’s family’s six-decade patronage of classical music through the All Pakistan Music Conference inspired the creation of Saarey Music. Recognizing a gap in access to quality classical music content online, Irfan, along with his co-founder, embarked on a journey to digitize and license Pakistan’s classical music records, leading to the birth of Saarey Music.
Despite bureaucratic hurdles and the challenges of digitizing and remastering, Saarey Music secured worldwide rights to 85-90% of Pakistan’s classical music, differentiating itself with a unique business model. The revival of classical music, especially qawwalis, has gained momentum in recent years, with Spotify reporting a nearly 500% growth in India’s classical music consumption. The pandemic further fueled the genre’s resurgence, making classical music the fastest-growing genre, recording a 90% growth in 2022.
Saarey Music enters the streaming industry at a time of significant structural changes, as noted by Goldman Sachs in its 2023 Music in the Air report. Projecting global music revenue to double to $131 billion by 2023, Goldman Sachs suggests streaming services tap into “superfans” for additional revenue. Saarey Music adopts an annual licensing fee structure, boasting a gross margin of 91%, compared to Spotify’s 30%. With lower costs per install and a 60% conversion to sign up, Saarey Music has crossed 600,000 users.
Looking ahead, Saarey Music plans to raise £5 million and introduce new features supporting artists, such as in-app tributes (nazrana) during live performances. The platform aims to enhance connectivity by allowing listeners to book artists for live events and facilitating updates on artists’ visits to local areas. Saarey Music, recognized with prestigious awards and featured among Forbes India’s Top 200 Companies, continues to champion classical music’s visibility and support for artists.
