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Business News Digital
Malaysian radio firm launches streaming service
By Andy Malt | Published on Monday 20 April 2015
Malaysian media company Astro has launched a new streaming service, named Raku, which aims to provide a more localised service to consumers in the country.
As well as on demand streaming, Raku gives users access to live streams of Astro’s existing radio stations, plus a selection of local and international podcasts. It operates an ad-funded freemium service as well as a premium service, the latter priced at 9.90 ringgits per month (approx £1.83) for existing Astro customers and 14.90 ringgits (approx £2.75) to everyone else.
Astro says it hopes the new service will be beneficial to Malaysian musicians in particular, who will be provided with a new source of revenue. Astro CEO Henry Tan told Digital News Asia: “As the music industry has been affected quite a fair bit by piracy, we hope Raku [will be a way we can support] the works of our local artistes”. A number of local artists are operating their own playlists on Raku at launch, as are various local radio presenters.
The service is also interesting in that, although it allows freemium users to listen to playlists on shuffle, it does not allow them to create their own tracklistings. Only premium subscribers and partnered brands can create playlists, with an emphasis seemingly placed on the value of creating and sharing them.
Brand partnerships aim to provide a third tier of income for the service, beyond ads and premium subscriptions, with brands paying both to create playlists and to tailor advertising around them.
