Anghami has become “Spotify of the Middle East” and plans to hold local shows

Anghami describes itself as the largest music streaming app for the Middle East and North Africa.

Launched in Beirut in 2012 by Elie Habib and Eddy Maroun, it was quickly dubbed the “Spotify of the Middle East”. Now based in Abu Dhabi, Anghami is growing its presence in the real world after amassing nearly 20 million active users.

It has partnered with Sony Music to launch “Vibe,” a boutique label that the companies say will “support independent Arabic music” and empower artists “to tell their stories regionally and globally.”

Then, in July, Anghami acquired Spotlight Events, a live events company, and plans to put on regular shows for local artists. Last month, she opened a venue and recording studio in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.

“Artists can’t just make money from streaming music,” says Habib. “They also need to make money from the real world.”

local knowledge

The platform faces serious competition from the likes of Spotify and Apple, but the founders are confident they can maintain their success by leveraging their knowledge of the region.

“We are Arabs, but we have influence from the Western world and this is reflected in our product,” says Maroun. “That’s why our product is really more relevant.”

The duo says that nurturing and developing Arab talent is fundamental to their mission. Of the 73 million songs in his catalog, Habib says only 1% of them are in Arabic, yet those songs generate 60% of all Anghami’s traffic. “We realized that we need to grow that 1%,” says Habib.

In February, the company signed an exclusive partnership with Egyptian superstar Amr Diab, whose 1.2 billion streams make him the platform’s most popular artist.

Around the same time, Anghami was listed on the Nasdaq stock exchange – the first Arab tech company to do so, according to the founders. “It was a great moment,” says Maroun. “We feel like we are really bringing an entire nation with us.”

In the first half of 2022, it recorded growth of 29% in revenue and 41% in the number of monthly subscribers, compared to the same period of the previous year. Since then, in a tougher economic climate, the company has cut a fifth of its workforce, but the founders are confident they can continue to expand the platform.

“When we started Anghami […] we never thought about IPOs, we never thought about millions of users using us every day,” says Habib. “The IPO is never the end game – the end game is doing something you are proud of.”