Fropper.com, the social networking site from the People Group (Shaadi.com) has launched a free online radio service. They have around 15,000 songs available online, sourced from labels like Venus, Saregama and Tips, as well as regional content providers like Aditya Music, Krunal Music and Sagarika Audio. Fropper has set itself the target of expanding its content base to 1,00,00 songss in the next 3 months. The Fropper Music jukebox allows users to rate songs, discover new content, and share music (with other Fropper users)...based on users preferences, Fropper Music will also create personalized radio channels for users. They also intend to create communities and conversations around music in the social network; internationally, there are sites like Last.fm and iLike.com focused on music and communities, with similar features.

I spoke to Navin Mittal, head of Fropper.com, who was very candid about the economics of the music content acquisition:

Where have you got the music content from and how much have you paid for it?
We’ve got the content from PPL and IPRS and around 60 percent of the industry is covered. We’re talking to SIMCA (South Indian Music Companies Association), Big Music, Eros and T-Series right now about their content. With IPRS it’s a minimum guarantee and a revenue share deal. With PPL, we’ve got a minimum guarantee and a pay-per-play deal. The kind of money that people are expecting is not realistic right now, and it’s a bit of a struggle for us.
Music rights are complicated...
Well, lots of people launch with just rights from IPRS. They don’t realize that they also need to get a sound recording license from PPL as well.
So how will you monetize the content?
Its early times right now because we’ve just launched it - we’ll have display advertising, player branding and skinning, section branding and skinning at the beginning. We also have audio advertising capability, and banner ads according to the users profile. Right now you’ll hear the Fropper jingles playing after every few songs. Those will be replaced with advertisements, but we won’t overdo it - we can’t kill the experience for the user.
What kind of advertising would be required for you to break even?
According to my calculations, if we’re able to sell 60 percent of the display inventory at around Rs. 50 or Rs. 60 CPM, we’ll break even in the first couple of years. Also, Mauj (the groups mobile content company) could fit into this. We could also tie up with a store and enable sales of CDs. It’s early days and models will emerge.
How’s the response been so far? How long does a radio session last?
It’s too early to say. The player has been on for 4-5 days and we had some teething troubles. Over 95 percent have the player running, while others have had to install Adobe (NSDQ: ADBE) Flash 9.
Will you be creating more communities around content?
We’re trying to build engagement for our users and improve the User Interface. We’re not in the features game. If OpenSocial takes off, it will be easy to use it as a base for Fropper apps.
Why not open up your API like most others?
We thought about that - but the Indian ecosystem is not like the ecosystem in the US. Here only a handful of people create applications. Why not leverage a platform based on open standards?