Spotify Launches in MENA

• The world’s most popular music streaming service is available to everyone in Qatar from today
• Launching with a fully Arabic product and locally-curated playlists
• Over 40m songs offering the very best in local and international music
• Revolutionary discovery and personalisation features

14 November, 2018: Spotify, the biggest music streaming subscription service in the world, officially launches today in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA)*, offering a revolutionary and unrivalled fully Arabic music experience tuned to your personal taste.

With a worldwide community of over 191 million music fans, Spotify offers users the choice of a Free ad-supported service, or an ad-free Premium subscription service. Users can listen for free forever, or alternatively can upgrade to Spotify Premium for the ultimate Spotify experience for only USD 4.99 per month.

Spotify has become famous for its leadership in music recommendation and discovery, offering every music fan a wealth of playlists tailored to their personal tastes and activities.

Spotify allows users to browse, discover, curate playlists, build their own music collection and share music with friends. With a catalogue of over 40 million songs and over 3 billion playlists all available to both free users and Premium subscribers, Spotify comes to MENA offering the very best in both local and international music.

“I am super excited to share with you that, from today, Spotify is now available across the Middle East and North Africa,” said Cecilia Qvist, Spotify’s Global Head of Markets. “Spotify is launching in MENA with a full Arabic service, dozens of locally-curated playlists for every mood and moment, and access to a full catalog of millions of songs, for both our free and premium users. Music fans will also enjoy Spotify’s personalised music recommendations from day one, which will help them to enjoy, discover and share new music from both local and international artists simply and easily.”

The best playlists

Spotify delivers music for every taste and mood. Users across MENA have instant access to a wide range of local playlists expertly curated and regularly updated by our team of music experts, including Today’s Top Arabic Hits, Oriental Chill Vibes, and Arabic EDM, alongside billions of Spotify- and fan-built international playlists.

Unique music recommendation and discovery features

A major feature of the Spotify service is its best-in-class personalisation, which allows fans to find the music they already love with ease, and also to help them discover new music and artists to love, based on their taste and listening patterns. When a new user joins Spotify, they are guided through a ‘Taste Onboarding’ process, which helps Spotify quickly customize recommendations to your music tastes.

Personalised discovery features including Daily Mix (a series of playlists combining your favourite tracks with new songs we think you’ll love), Release Radar (a playlist of new music based on the artists you follow and listen to most, updated every Friday) and Discover Weekly (a playlist based on your unique listening habits – coming soon) mean you’re never more than a moment away from the music you love.

Spotify also offers:

• Mood and genre playlist hubs: head to Browse to choose from a wide range of hubs including Workout, Chill, Party, Focus, Gaming, Sleep, Dinner, Kids and many more.
• Automatic low bitrate streaming: Spotify’s default setting for data streaming in MENA is 24kbps, perfect if you’re streaming when not on wifi***.
• Offline listening for Premium users: simply ‘download’ your music to your mobile device or desktop when you’re online to enjoy while you’re offline.
• High audio quality for Premium users – up to 320 kbps.
• Superior social features:
  • Unique sharing integration via Facebook, Instagram and Twitter
  • Share and make collaborative playlists within Facebook Messenger
  • Share your own playlists and favourite songs directly from the app Charts: Global streaming charts. MENA charts coming soon.
• Play everywhere: download the Spotify app on mobile, laptop and tablet
• Listen everywhere: Wi-Fi and Bluetooth speakers, Amazon Echo, Sonos, Bose, Android TV, Samsung TV, Google Chromecast, Microsoft Xbox, Samsung, Google Home, Waze, Carplay and many others.
• Background play: the music never stops on your mobile, even when you run the app in the background.

Globally, Spotify has changed the way artists connect with music fans. Musicians want their music heard and Spotify has succeeded in introducing artists to millions of people over the world.

In addition, Spotify has delivered more than €10 billion to the music industry since first launching in 2008. Following the launches across 13 markets in MENA, Spotify is now available in 78 markets worldwide.

To enjoy music the way you want it, download the app today via the Android or iOS app store, or by heading to www.spotify.com.

@SpotifyArabia on Instagram and Twitter

And @SpotifyGulf on Facebook