Spotify contemplating shopping for MENA-focused rival Anghami (report)

Spotify is reportedly contemplating shopping for its MENA-focused rival Anghami.

That’s in response to a report revealed by Dubai-based Frankly journal. Arabian Enterprise additionally carried the information.

Anghami listed on the NASDAQ in New York in February by way of a merger with a publicly-traded particular function acquisition firm.

The music streaming firm entered right into a definitive merger settlement in March 2021, which valued Anghami at $220 million.

The article cites a supply as saying that “The concept was that Anghami would go public if Spotify confirmed curiosity in an acquisition, so a SPAC was proposed to hurry up the takeover”.

The report says {that a} Spotify spokeswoman commented that: “We’ve no information to report concerning a possible acquisition between Spotify and Anghami.”

Anghami declined to remark, in response to the report.

Center East and North Africa Targeted Anghami is a specialist in Arabic content material, claiming to be the primary music-streaming platform within the MENA area. It additionally says that it was the primary Arab Expertise firm to be listed on NASDAQ and the primary Arab firm to checklist on this market in over 25 years.

Anghami, which says that “Arabic content material is essential” to its “future progress”, noticed its energetic person base improve 46% year-over-year to 19.5 million customers in H1.

The corporate reported that its subscriber progress was primarily resulting from “greater conversion charges of advertising-supported customers to paying subscribers, in addition to a better variety of Lively Customers”.

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Spotify launched within the Center East and North Africa in November 2018, with its regional headquarters based mostly in Dubai.

Along with Anghami, Spotify competes with the likes of Deezer and Apple Music within the markets.

Recorded music market revenues in MENA grew by 35% in 2021, in response to IFPI, which, in response to the org, confirmed it to be the fastest-growing area on the planet.

The IFPI stories that the market is predominantly made up of streaming, which represents 95.3% of the area’s recorded music revenues.

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Anghami famous in August when it introduced its H1 outcomes that it has struck a number of partnerships in current months to enhance its place within the MENA area.

In February, Anghami introduced an unique partnership with Egyptian artist and Arabic music megastar Amr Diab, essentially the most streamed artist on the Anghami platform, with near 1.2 billion streams. This unique partnership introduced the singer’s total audio and video catalog, in addition to future releases, completely to Anghami.

In April, Anghami inked a strategic partnership with Rotana Music, claimed to be the most important document label within the Center East.

Elsewhere, in July, Anghami acquired Highlight Occasions, a dwell occasions firm that focuses on creating and managing dwell occasions and live shows within the MENA area.

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In Q3 2022 (the three months to finish of September), Spotify added 7 million web Premium subscribers to its person base, taking its whole international paying subs viewers to 195 million. Spotify’s MAUs on the shut of Q3 hit 456 million – up 23 million on the prior quarter.

Music Enterprise Worldwide