Spotify is the world’s most popular music streaming service. None of its rivals have as big a paying subscriber base as Spotify that’s despite the fact that it’s only available in select markets. The company’s growth story continues and it’s now launching its two additional regions across the globe.
It was rumored earlier this year that Spotify may be looking to expand its service to the MENA region which encompasses the Middle East and North Africa. Spotify was expected to launch in this region by the fourth quarter of 2018.
Spotify now seems to have expanded its service to select countries in these regions. The service has gone live in the United Arab Emirates, Oman, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, Lebanon, Qatar, Bahrain, Egypt, Kuwait, Morocco, Tunisia, and Algeria.
It’s invitation-only at this point which means that Spotify is testing the waters ahead of a full-fledged launch. Only those who receive an invite to Spotify will be able to start using the music streaming service in these markets for now.
It won’t really be smooth sailing for Spotify in these regions as other players already exist and have built up a considerable user base. Anghami, for example, is a regional streaming service from Lebanon and it has more than 55 million users.