LAHORE: Patari, a Pakistani music streaming platform, akin to Spotify and Saavn achieved a milestone as it partnered up with Facebook to participate in Facebook’s Music Stories.

A press release by Patari on Thursday announced that Patari will join a small number of streaming sites, such as Spotify, which are testing a new feature on the Facebook app, “Music Stories”. The new post format on the Facebook app allows users to listen to a 30-second preview of a shared song or album.

“This collaboration marks a watershed moment for the local music industry, and especially for Patari. Our participation in this product is proof that it is possible to set up a sustainable platform for Pakistani music, that can have a global reach," said Patari’s CEO Khalid Bajwa, an Islamabad-based engineer-turned-entrepreneur.

“The collaboration with Facebook is a fantastic way for our users to access our vast database of Pakistani music, and further enrich the social and cultural value of one of Pakistan’s most vibrant art forms,” Ahmer Naqvi, the Director of Content at Patari noted.

According to analysts, due to the high retention rates for media which can be played on Facebook, the new Music Stories feature will lead to higher engagement levels among users.

Patari claims to have become the first Pakistani digital media platform to pay royalties to its artists, with Rs1.25 million paid out last December. The platform available on iOS and Android as an app was launched in September last year and boasts of over a hundred thousand monthly active users.