Spotify is the most widely used music streaming service. It announced earlier this month that there are now 75 million people who are paying for its premium tier. Spotify continues its search for new subscribers, paid and free alike, by expanding into new markets gradually. According to a new report, the Swedish company is going to officially expand into the Middle East by launching in the United Arab Emirates first later this year.
A source with knowledge of the plans told MENAbytes that the world’s leading music streaming service, Spotify, is going to expand in the MENA region by first coming to the United Arab Emirates in the fourth quarter of this year.
Spotify has reportedly leased office space in Dubai already. This was also mentioned in Spotify’s recent filing with the SEC which confirmed that it now has office space in a number of cities across the globe, including Dubai.
The company has started hiring for at least four new positions that will be positioned in the Dubai office, the positions include Senior Editor for Middle East & Africa and Technical Account Manager for Middle East & North Africa among others.
Spotify will be going up against Anghami in this region. It’s the leading music streaming service in the MENA region. Based in Beirut, the startup boasts 40 million listeners in this region and already has licensing agreements with all major Arabic record labels as well as with international labels such as EMI, Universal, Sony, and Warner.