The Arab music industry — plagued by rampant piracy, free YouTube clips and dated channels — is the latest target for global streaming giants intent on bringing the outmoded business into the digital era.
After their successes in Europe and the Americas, online platforms are looking to invest in emerging markets in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA), and capture their large populations of hyper-connected youth.
In a region plagued by political turmoil and economic crises, streaming giant Spotify is hoping to blow the dust off a Middle East business that has failed to keep up in a world of paid-for digital content.
“We arrived with a fully Arabic service, localized playlists and a local team,” said Claudius Boller, managing director for Spotify’s Middle East and Africa division. “We are only just getting started.”
Global streaming revenues last year grew by 22.9 percent to US$11.4 billion, accounting for more than half of recorded music business for the first time, the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry said.
However, since its peak in the 1990s and 2000s, the Arab pop music industry has declined over the past decade in the upheaval that followed the Arab Spring anti-government uprisings.
HOMEGROWN ARTISTS
Spotify, which launched in the Middle East in 2018, said that it wants to change that by giving regional talent the opportunity for global exposure.
“We came to the region to introduce a service that is not just an addition to MENA, but truly adds value by elevating regional music streaming,” Boller said. “Today, Arabic music and artists are being showcased to the world and discovered through Spotify.”
International hip-hop is the most popular genre on Spotify in the region, but the most sought-after artists are all homegrown — including Kuwaiti rapper Queen G, Egypt’s Marwan Moussa and Morocco’s Stormy.
Pierre France, a researcher at the Orient Institut Beirut who studies the industry, said that “mutual ignorance” makes cracking the Middle East a tall order.
“It is a fool’s game because the market is not very well-known,” he said.
Some streaming services thought they were striking gold, only to realize they were dealing with an industry that is “aging,” “disorganized” and “lacking vision,” he said.
On the local side, there is “a fantasy” about tapping into the international market, but with little knowledge of what it wants to hear, he added.
Lebanese music streaming platform Anghami, which is popular in the Middle East thanks to its firm understanding of regional tastes and culture, said that musicians and labels needed to embrace new technology and paid-for platforms.
“Most artists still prefer releasing their tracks on YouTube for free, rather than putting them behind a paywall,” said Arun Sajjan, Anghami head of licensing. “Users are still not ready to consider paying for premium services to listen to music.”
A rogue overgrown sheep found roaming through regional Australia has been shorn of his 35kg fleece — a weight even greater than that of the famous New Zealand sheep Shrek, who was captured in 2005 after six years on the loose. The merino ram, dubbed Baarack by rescuers, was discovered wandering alone with an extraordinarily overgrown wool coat, and was promptly shorn to save his life. Kyle Behrend, from the Edgar’s Mission farm sanctuary, said that it appeared Baarack was “once an owned sheep” who had escaped. Merino sheep do not shed their fleece and need to be shorn at least annually, as
‘GRAVE CONCERN’: A critic of the government died immediately following his complaints of torture at the hands of security forces, a human rights group said Students on Friday clashed with police in Bangladesh’s capital, Dhaka, as anger mounted at the death of a writer and government critic in a high-security jail. At least 18 police and an unknown number of protesters were injured in the clashes, authorities and witnesses said, amid international demands for an independent investigation into the death of Mushtaq Ahmed. An Agence France-Presse correspondent witnessed police using batons and firing tear gas at students who staged a torchlight march calling for “justice” near the University of Dhaka. At least six students who allegedly attacked security forces with torches were detained, police said. More protests were planned
China, under growing global pressure over its treatment of Uighurs in Xinjiang, is mounting an unprecedented and aggressive campaign to push back, including explicit attacks on women who have made claims of abuse. As allegations of human rights violations in Xinjiang mount, with a growing number of Western lawmakers accusing China of genocide, Beijing is focusing on discrediting the female Uighur witnesses behind reports of abuse. Chinese officials have named women, disclosed medical data and information on their fertility, and accused some of having affairs and one of having a sexually transmitted disease. Officials said that the information was evidence of bad character,
The plane laden with vaccines had just rolled to a stop at Santiago’s airport in late January and Chilean President Sebastian Pinera was beaming. “Today is a day of joy, emotion and hope,” he said. The source of that hope: China — a country that Chile and dozens of other nations are depending on to help rescue them from the COVID-19 pandemic. China’s vaccine diplomacy campaign has been a surprising success: It has pledged about 500 million doses of its vaccine to more than 45 countries, according to a country-by-country tally by The Associated Press (AP). With just four of China’s many