More Than 4G Internet, Reliance Jio’s Big Play Is Movies & Music

Here’s a look at the two Jio apps that are winners thanks to their content.

Reliance can capitalise on its vast digital resources with Jio. (Photo: The Quint)

There’s more to Reliance Jio than its supposedly fast-speed 4G network.

So, moving away from the subject of fast internet speeds, and Reliance Jio’s ongoing negotiations with operators like Airtel and Vodafone, it’s time we talk about the company’s full-fledged plans to take over our digital lives. And fair to say, the initial signs are promising.

In addition to 4G internet, Reliance Jio is offering its bouquet of services within the MyJio app ecosystem, which is inclusive of free movies and music till the end of 2017 for all its customers.

India is gradually maturing into a content consuming market, and with brands like Hotstar and Netflix already available, the dynamics are moving in the right direction.

But comparing Jio Cinema with a Netflix or Jio Music with apps like Gaana will never be that simple. Or so we thought.

Reliance Jio has the benefit of in-house content, that enables them to offer latest movies like Bajirao Mastani on its ecosystem for free, which most of the other companies will find it hard to offer without charging the consumer.

Let’s take a closer look if Reliance Jio’s music and movies app is good enough, that too for free. Interestingly, even after users pay to use Jio 4G, they won’t have to be worried about burning their data limit by using these apps.

Jio Cinema

The Jio Cinema interface. (Photo: Jio Cinema Screengrab)

The content catalogue of Jio Cinema gets updated after every two to three days. The app has significantly evolved since it was first made available. Not only do you get a decent list of Bollywood movies, you also can enjoy Hollywood titles like The Wolf of Wall Street and The Expendables, to name a few.

The app offers quality real-time streaming. (Photo: Jio Cinema Screengrab)

Then, you are also given the choice to watch evergreen TV series like Grey’s Anatomy or even animated movies like Toy Story.

Jio Cinema has a user-friendly interface. (Photo: Jio Cinema Screengrab)

What also helps is the fact that content on Jio Cinema works seamlessly, with less than 5 seconds of buffer, depending upon the video quality that you choose to stream it in.

Users can choose video quality settings. (Photo: Jio Cinema Screengrab)

There’s no need to sign in to the app if you’re on a Jio network, and preferably we’d recommend that you use this app only on the home network.

Our experience with the app has been encouraging, and we certainly expect the app to get better in the coming months, with fresh content added frequently.

Jio Music

Jio Music’s got promise. (Photo: Jio Music Screengrab)

Music apps in India are few and far between. The market leaders are Gaana and Saavn, and then you have apps from telcos like Airtel (Wynk) among others. But with Jio Music, the scales are yet again shifting towards a large and impressive content library, even if it’s available free of cost.

The best part about Jio Music is that not only can you stream songs at a high bit rate (dependent on your connectivity), you can even download them.

Jio Music users can download songs at different bit rates. (Photo: Jio Music Screengrab)

The playlist quality of Jio Music isn’t the most impressive, but the company will be pushing more and more song titles. English, Bollywood, Marathi, Tamil: You name it, and they are there.

The freebie nature of these Jio apps does give them a upper hand over the other paid offerings. But truth is, the apps deserve a look-in simply for their sheer content value on offer as well.