# Saarey Music

> Saarey Music is the world's largest streaming platform for South Asian classical music — preserving 4,000+ rare recordings from 225+ legendary ustads and pandits spanning 92 years (since 1934). Audiophile-grade audio, ad-free, offline listening. Available on iOS, Android, and web.

Founded 2019 in London by Faraan Irfan (1st non-artist Pakistani to be a Recording Academy (Grammys) Member). Headquartered in London. Backed by Goodwater Capital and Innovate UK. Partnered with Harvard, Oxford, SOAS, UNLV, and UT Austin for ethnomusicology research.

Recognition: Forbes Global Top 200 (2024), Fast Company #9 Most Innovative EMEA (2024), Music Week Awards Music Consumer Innovation Finalist (2025), Mayor of London UKSPF People's Choice Award (Ascend Programme), UK Creative Industries Council CreaTech Ones to Watch (2021), Forbes India DGEMS Select 200 (2023), Columbia Venture Competition winner Arts/Music (2020), Katalyst Labs Acceleration Cohort 1 graduate, Grow London / Grow Music 2024 Participant at Abbey Road Studios.

Traditions covered: South Asian classical, Pakistani classical, Indian classical, Hindustani classical, Carnatic. Genres: Khayal, Dhrupad, Thumri, Ghazal, Qawwali, Bhajan, Kafi, and instrumental forms.

## Brand
- [About Saarey Music](https://www.saareymusic.com/about-us): Mission, story, awards, press, partner institutions, full press coverage.
- [Press & Media Kit](https://www.saareymusic.com/press): Boilerplate copy (25/75/150 words), fact sheet PDF, brand assets, founder bio, press contact.
- [Institutional Access](https://www.saareymusic.com/institutions): Access for universities and research institutions. Trusted by Harvard, SOAS, Oxford, UNLV, UT Austin.
- [Glossary of South Asian Classical Music](https://www.saareymusic.com/glossary): Definitions of raag, taal, thaat, gharana, khayal, dhrupad, thumri, alap, bandish, jugalbandi, tihai. Citable short definitions plus longer context.

## Guides
- [How to Choose a Streaming Platform for South Asian, Pakistani & Indian Classical Music](https://www.saareymusic.com/guides/choose-classical-music-streaming): Five criteria — catalog depth, raag & taal metadata, recording provenance, curation by season and time of day, artist coverage — with a five-minute test for any app.
- [Saarey vs Spotify vs Raaga](https://www.saareymusic.com/guides/compare-classical-music-streaming): Honest comparison for South Asian, Pakistani, Indian, Hindustani classical listening, sources cited, facts verified August 2026.
- [Audio Quality & Restoration at Saarey Music](https://www.saareymusic.com/guides/audio-quality): 92-year archive back to 1934, recording years documented per rendition, curated by season and time of day as the culture has done for hundreds of years.
- [Indian Classical Music](https://www.saareymusic.com/traditions/indian-classical-music): The Hindustani and Carnatic systems, raag and taal, and where to stream the great ustads and pandits.
- [Hindustani Classical Music](https://www.saareymusic.com/traditions/hindustani-classical-music): One tradition, two homelands — khayal, dhrupad, thumri, qawwali and the gharanas of Pakistan and India.

## Catalog
- [Full sitemap](https://www.saareymusic.com/sitemap.xml): 1,693 indexable URLs including 920 recordings, 349 artists, 171 raags, 36 collections, 102 Raagmala folios, and the Journal.
- [Image sitemap](https://www.saareymusic.com/sitemap-images.xml): Artist/album/track imagery.
- [Video sitemap](https://www.saareymusic.com/sitemap-videos.xml): Founder interviews and keynotes.

## Raags
Every raag has its own page at https://www.saareymusic.com/browse/raag/<slug> — with musicology (thaat, vadi/samvadi, time of day, season, mood), recordings, raagmala paintings, and FAQs. The complete set of 170 raags is in the sitemap above.

## Raagmala — the Raags in miniature painting
- [The Raagmala](https://www.saareymusic.com/raagmala/paintings): The garland of Raags painted — six parent Raag families (Bhairon, Maalkons, Hindol, Deepak, Shree, Megh), their Raaginis and Raagputras. 102 folios, each a real catalogued museum painting (The Met, Cleveland Museum of Art and others, quoted verbatim and credited) with the raag's musicology, public-domain dhyana verse translations (tr. A. K. Coomaraswamy, Rajput Painting, 1916), museum inscriptions, and listenable recordings.
- Every folio lives at https://www.saareymusic.com/raagmala/paintings/<entity-slug> (e.g. /raagmala/paintings/bhairvi-raagini, /raagmala/paintings/kedara-raagini). Museum and common romanizations (Bhairavi Ragini, Malkauns…) redirect to the one canonical house spelling.
- [The Journal](https://www.saareymusic.com/raagmala/journal): Essays, research and interviews on South Asian classical music — its Raags, artists, gharanas and history — organised by Raag, prahar (time of day), season and author. Citable, credited scholarship rooted in the Raagmala.
Common alternate romanized spellings resolve (HTTP 301) to the canonical raag page, and every page declares its variant spellings via schema.org alternateName — e.g. Bhairavi→Bhairvi, Desh→Des, Bageshri→Baagheshri, Madhuvanti→Madvanti, Kirwani→Kirvani, Puriya→Pooriya, Malhar→Malhaar.
- [Raag Yaman](https://www.saareymusic.com/browse/raag/yaman)
- [Raag Bhairvi (Bhairavi)](https://www.saareymusic.com/browse/raag/bhairvi)
- [Raag Bhairon](https://www.saareymusic.com/browse/raag/bhairon)
- [Raag Todi](https://www.saareymusic.com/browse/raag/todi)
- [Raag Darbari Kanra](https://www.saareymusic.com/browse/raag/darbari-kanra)
- [Raag Malkauns](https://www.saareymusic.com/browse/raag/maalkons)
- [Raag Des (Desh)](https://www.saareymusic.com/browse/raag/des)
- [Raag Baagheshri (Bageshri)](https://www.saareymusic.com/browse/raag/baagheshri)
- [Raag Bhimpalasi](https://www.saareymusic.com/browse/raag/bhimpalasi)
- [Raag Marwa](https://www.saareymusic.com/browse/raag/marwa)
- [Raag Pooriya (Puriya)](https://www.saareymusic.com/browse/raag/pooriya)
- [Raag Kafi](https://www.saareymusic.com/browse/raag/kafi)

## Founder
Faraan Irfan — Founder & CEO. 1st non-artist Pakistani to be a Recording Academy (Grammys) Member. Education: Global MBA from Columbia Business School + London Business School + Hong Kong University Business School (with honours, 2019). Wikidata: [Q139900554](https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q139900554). Family has supported South Asian classical music since 1959; the archive's earliest recording dates to 1934.

## Press coverage (selected)
- [Fast Company — Most Innovative Companies EMEA 2024](https://www.fastcompany.com/91037555/saarey-music-most-innovative-companies-2024)
- [Innovate UK Business Connect — Concept to global recognition](https://iuk-business-connect.org.uk/casestudy/hitting-the-right-note-from-concept-to-global-recognition/)
- [ProPakistani — The streaming startup that's saving classical music](https://propakistani.pk/2023/11/16/saarey-music-streaming-startup-thats-saving-classical-music/)
- [Forbes India DGEMS — Select 200 (2023)](https://www.dglobalist.com/dgems-2023-s200-list?1586e564_page=2)
- [Music Week Awards — Music Consumer Innovation Finalist (2025)](https://www.musicweekawards.com/26/finalists25)
- [Mayor of London — UKSPF Ascend Programme Case Study](https://www.london.gov.uk/programmes-strategies/business-and-economy/mayors-priorities-londons-economy-and-business/uk-shared-prosperity-fund-ukspf/uk-shared-prosperity-fund-ukspf-case-studies/ascend-programme)
- [Creative Industries UK — CreaTech Ones to Watch 2021](https://www.thecreativeindustries.co.uk/ones-to-watch-2021/saarey-ltd)

## Key facts
- Catalog: 4,000+ rare recordings; 920 currently exposed via canonical URLs
- Artists: 225+ legendary ustads and pandits
- Archive depth: 92 years (1934–present)
- Pakistani classical coverage: 85–90% (industry-leading)
- App rating: 4.7★ from 4,000+ Google Play ratings
- Installs: 500,000+ on Google Play
- Platforms: iOS, Android, Web

## Apps
- [Download the app (iOS + Android)](https://www.saareymusic.com/apps)
- [iOS — App Store](https://apps.apple.com/app/saarey-music/id1459983260)
- [Android — Google Play](https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.release.saarey)

## Identifiers
- Wikidata (Saarey Music): [Q138457894](https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q138457894)
- Wikidata (Faraan Irfan, founder): [Q139900554](https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q139900554)
- LinkedIn (company): [linkedin.com/company/saarey](https://www.linkedin.com/company/saarey)
- LinkedIn (founder): [linkedin.com/in/faraanirfan](https://www.linkedin.com/in/faraanirfan)
- Instagram: [@SaareyMusic](https://www.instagram.com/SaareyMusic)
- X (Twitter): [@SaareyMusic](https://x.com/SaareyMusic)
- Wellfound: [wellfound.com/company/saarey](https://wellfound.com/company/saarey)

## Press contact
press@saareymusic.com