Deezer beats Spotify into Middle East & North Africa market

It was the latest battleground for streaming services, and the smaller guy won.

Spotify announced recently announced to the world that it was going to enter Middle East & North Africa (MEANA).

But Deezer has beaten it to the punch – and what’s more, in a partnership with Rotana Group, whose Rotana Records is arguably the biggest record company in the Middle East with a diverse range of Arabic music

The deal means that the only place that people in the region can hear its music being streamed is on Deezer.

The app is offering playlists as PopTop Arab, Rapstars Maghreb United and Shaabi Essentials, and also offering new users six months of Premium for free.

Users who sign up for the service can automatically access all content in Arabic if their preferred language is set to Arabic.

According to Deezer, music fans will also be able to instantly access local content from music production group Mazzika and Saudi-based telecom provider Qanawat, in addition to 53 million tracks from global artists.

The service is now available – with local offers – for users in countries including the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Lebanon, Morocco, Algeria, Kuwait, Tunisia, Oman, Jordan, Bahrain and Mauritania.

 Hans-Holger Albrecht, CEO of Deezer said: “We are really excited to bring Arabic listeners a unique and unrivalled blend of the best exclusive Arabic music and the most popular international tracks in one place.

“At Deezer, we understand that people’s music tastes combine local and international tracks.

“We believe that it is important to be present locally, close to the artists we promote on our platform and to the local music fans who support them.”

Salem Al-Hindi, CEO of Rotana Audio & Video Group added:

“As Rotana is the first and leading Arab music company in the world to have always surpassed many other companies in the digital music world, we realised that it was time to conclude a partnership agreement with Deezer, a world leader in high-quality music, in order to reach the largest segment of users in the MENA region and in many parts of the world.

“This agreement will certainly benefit both parties and the biggest and main beneficiary will be the artists who are signed with Rotana, as well as all music lovers in the Arab music.”