Dhingana, a major Indian music service which we reported as having about 3.5-million users in December, has closed to the public. Visitors to the website see this starkly definitive message: “Goodbye! We hope that you enjoyed listening to Dhingana as much as we enjoyed building it. But alas, all good things must come to an end. We thank you from the bottom of our hearts for letting us be a part of your musical moments!”
The closure comes about a year and a half after Dhingana received $7-million in funding from a trio of venture companies. Dhingana was one of three major independent Indian music services that provided Bollywood songs and other native genres. The remaining two, Saavn and Gaana, are newer entrants in the field, having launched in 2011, four years after Dhingana. All three were facing pressure from Vodafone India, which started a competing service targeted to its telecom users.