Spotify [2,985 articles]" href="https://www.musicbusinessworldwide.com/companies/spotify/">Spotify plans to buy MENA-focused rival Anghami [48 articles]" href="https://www.musicbusinessworldwide.com/companies/anghami/">Anghami.
It is according to a report published by Dubai-based Frankly magazine. Arab affairs too gate the news.
Anghami listing on the NASDAQ in New York in February via a merger with a publicly traded special purpose acquisition company.
The music streaming company Between in a definitive merger agreement in March 2021, who valued Anghami at $220 million.
The article quotes a source saying that “the idea was that Anghami would go public if Spotify showed interest in an acquisition, so a SPAC was proposed to expedite the takeover.”
The report states that a Spotify spokeswoman said, “We have no news to report regarding a potential acquisition between Spotify and Anghami.”
Anghami declined to comment, according to the report.
Focused on the Middle East and North Africa Anghami is an Arabic content specialist, claiming to be the first music streaming platform in the MENA region.
Anghami, which says “Arabic content is key” to its “future growth”, saw its active user base grow 46% year-on-year to 19.5 million users in first semester.
The company reported that its subscriber growth was primarily due to “higher conversion rates from ad-supported users to paid subscribers, as well as a higher number of active users”.
Spotify launched in the Middle East and North Africa in November 2018, with its regional headquarters based in Dubai.
In addition to AnghamiSpotify competes with the likes of Deezer and Apple Music in the markets.
Recorded music market revenue in the MENA region grew by 35% in 2021, according to the IFPIwhich the organization says has confirmed it to be the fastest growing music region in the world.
IFPI [425 articles]" href="https://www.musicbusinessworldwide.com/companies/ifpi/">The IFPI reports that the market is primarily comprised of streaming, which accounts for 95.3% of the region’s recorded music revenue.
Anghami noted in August when announcing its first half results that it had entered into several partnerships in recent months to improve its position in the MENA region.
In February, Anghami announced an exclusive partnership with the Egyptian artist and Arab music megastar Amr Diab, the most streamed artist on the Anghami platform, with nearly 1.2 billion streams. This exclusive partnership brought the singer’s entire audio and video catalog, as well as future releases, exclusively to Anghami.
In April, Anghami signed a strategic partnership with Rotana Music, claimed to be the largest record company in the Middle East.
Elsewhere in July, Anghami acquired Spotlight Events, a live events company specializing in the creation and management of live events and concerts in the MENA region.
In the third quarter of 2022 (the three months until the end of September), Spotify added 7 million net of Premium subscribers to its user base, bringing its total global audience of paid subscribers to 195 million. Spotify’s MAUs at the end of the third quarter hit 456 million – at the top 23 million over the previous quarter.
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