Flipkart to shutter Flyte music service due to piracy, micro-payment issues

Flipkart's head of digital media and payment, Mekin Maheshwari, today announced that the MP3 store of Flipkart, Flyte, has been shut down.

The Economic Times quoted an email statement by Maheshwari that said,"We have realised that the music downloads business in India will not reach scale unless several problem areas such as music piracy and easy micro-payments etc. are solved in great depth."

Flipkart stated that Flyte will no longer be operational after 17 June and urged its customers to use their Flyte Wallet balance by that date. However, it stated that in case any customer failed to use his wallet balance by 17 June, the amount that they have in the wallet will be refunded to them.

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[caption id="attachment_826135" align="alignleft" width="380"] A screengrab of Flyte[/caption]

Flyte, the digital download service of Flipkart, started over a year ago and was a medium by which customers could legally download music as well as individual songs at affordable prices. The company claims that it had already built a customer base of nearly 100,000 people and have also made a massive music catalogue.

Flipkart stated that it is taking a step back from the market of digital music and intends to revisit it at a later stage when it will prove to be a profitable business in India. Flyte was launched in February last year.

While Flyte's digital music service is shutting down, its ebooks will be still available. However, the customers will have to use other payment methods like credit or debit card.