Spotify’s relationship with Africa

Spotify is in an elite group of companies as one of the world's largest music streaming platforms. The company's rapid expansion strategy has seen it focus on more emerging markets including Africa's young population of music lovers. As of 2024, Spotify has over 236 million monthly paying subscribers. In 2021 alone, Spotify grew by more than 25 million paying subscribers according to Search Logistics.

Spotify entry into Africa

In July 2021, Spotify continued its expansion strategy, entering 38 new African countries. Before this expansion, the Swedish audio streaming platform was only available in Algeria, Egypt, Morocco, South Africa, and Tunisia. 

The entry of Spotify in Africa was not only great for music listeners, but was highly beneficial for artists, as they could increase their streaming numbers and get added to playlists on the platform. Apart from exposure, artists would also receive better data metrics with insights on their number of monthly listeners and the location from where they are streaming around the world. Access to this data helped artists refine their marketing strategies, knowing which countries to tour and make collaborations in.

Previously when Spotify wasn't available in Africa, customers had to use a VPN (Virtual Private Network) to access its features. The streaming service is mainly admired for its appealing user interface, its personally curated playlists which are made according to a user's activity, and its audio recommendations which include song and podcast recommendations.