Musical.ly reaches 15 million users in India

World’s largest Short Video App musical.ly comes of age in India – Reaches 15 million users

Musical.ly is a Chinese video social network app for video creation, messaging, and live broadcasting, launched in 2014. Through the app, users can create 15-second to 1 minute videos and choose sound tracks to accompany them, use different speed options (time-lapse, slow, normal, fast, and epic) and add pre-set filters and effects. As of July 2016, the app has over 90 million registered users worldwide and with almost 12 million new videos posted every day. By the end of May 2017, however,  the app reached over 200 millions of users. https://musical.ly/en-US/  is now trending in India, 250K+ videos uploaded per day. Moreover, within half a year of existing in Indian consciousness, it has already crossed 15 million users!

The many roles of musical.ly

Seems like musical.ly is the new platform to fame, for young grassroots level content creators in India. Is it a glorified karaoke machine for youngsters to have fun with? Or is it a tool for Indian musicians to put out their content? This remains to be seen. In January 28, 2016, Business Insider released a survey, in which "10 of the 60 [interviewed teenagers] listed Musical.ly as the app they were most excited about". Internationally, musical.ly has maybe already given rise to a wave of artists owning the platform to release and promote their music. Artists such as Ariana Grande, Demi Lovato, Andra Day, Selena Gomez, Shakira, Daddy Yankee, Bebe Rexha, Krewella, Brendon Urie, and Meghan Trainor have used this app to promote their newest singles. Also, most importantly, In 2016, Jason Derulo actually released the video for his single "If It Ain't Love" on musical.ly. But, the international consumption patterns regarding music is completely different, especially with music having it's own industry. In India, however, the music industry for the masses is almost synonymous with Bollywood. So, in the Indian market, Bollywood celebrities such as Shraddha Kapoor, Tiger Shroff, Shahid Kapoor and Disha Patani have already picked up this trend and are hence a part of the musical.ly journey.

Is there more to it?

Israeli schoolgirl Anna Zak had become a celebrity in Israel after building millions of followers on musical.ly and so, securing a sponsorship deal with Adidas. While there is no denying the popularity of the app, can it rise to a level where it seems like it can become the platform for unseen and unheard talent? This is were the "Musers" come in, probably. 

The #1MillionAudition

The #1MillionAudition is a creator incubation program by https://musical.ly/en-US/ with an investment of upto Rs. 10 million. The campaign lasted for two weeks starting from January 19 to February 5, 2018. Also, during the campaign, there were more than 300K musical.ly videos posted under the designated hashtags. There were four different categories - Best Vines, Sexy Moves, Special Skills and Best Dancers. The views of all videos have reached to 150M. musical.ly hosted an official Meet and Greet, along with an influencer party on February 10, in Westin Mumbai Garden City. The Meet and Greet also saw thousands of young ‘musers’ from across India fly down to Mumbai for the event. They got a chance to meet their favourite top musers. The top Indian muser being Disha Madan, with a whopping 1.5 million followers! The evening had the presence of celebrity comedians like Mallika Dua and Tanmay Bhatt. Only time will tell if musical.ly will truly disrupt the market with grassroots level change. Or will it become a mass platform that the biggies just use to advertise? Do share your opinions in the comments section below.