Spotify has announced its plans to extend its services to 85 countries of the world, including Nigeria.
Over the next few days, Spotify services would be open to about 1 billion targeted users living in the 85 new markets.
The company made the information public on Monday at its Stream On event for creators and partners.
Among the 85 new markets are Nigeria, Angola, Mali, Senegal, Chad, Burkina Faso, and other African countries.
Spotify would also be activating its services to Asian countries like Pakistan, Mongolia, and Bangladesh. The list of 85 countries span Africa, Europe, Latin America and countries in the Caribbean.
In addition to the 85 new markets, Spotify also provides support for over 60 native languages natively. This is after Spotify added native support for 36 new languages.
After finally launching in the new markets, Spotify’s total footprint will cover 178 markets, including the 93 countries Spotify already works in.
Spotify claims that this expansion is its biggest concentrated market expansion to date.
Alex Norström, Spotify’s chief freemium business officer, in a comment, said:
“Having more listeners on our platform creates more opportunities for artists and podcasters to make a living from their work. And more creators means more audio content for our users to discover.“
He further added that:
“This creates an essential flywheel between creators and listeners that is the foundation of our business — and in the end, it is what will propel the audio industry forward.”
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According to a report by Variety, as of the fourth quarter of 2020, Spotify reported 345 million total monthly active listeners – a 27% growth for the year.
The total number of active listeners includes 155 million Premium subscribers (up 24%). The service offers more than 70 million individual tracks, including over 2 million podcast titles.
Here’s the full list of 85 new markets Spotify is launching in:
Angola, Antigua and Barbuda, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Bahamas, Bangladesh, Barbados, Belize, Benin, Bhutan, Botswana, Brunei Darussalam, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Cabo Verde, Cambodia, Cameroon, Chad, Comoros, Côte d’Ivoire, Curaçao, Djibouti, Dominica, Equatorial Guinea, Eswatini, Fiji, Gabon, Gambia, Georgia, Ghana, Grenada, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Guyana, Haiti, Jamaica, Kenya, Kiribati, Kyrgyzstan, Lao People’s Democratic Republic, Lesotho, Liberia, Macau, Madagascar, Malawi, Maldives, Mali, Marshall Islands, Mauritania, Mauritius, Micronesia, Mongolia, Mozambique, Namibia, Nauru, Nepal, Niger, Nigeria, Pakistan, Palau, Papua New Guinea, Rwanda, Samoa, San Marino, Sao Tome and Principe, Senegal, Seychelles, Sierra Leone, Solomon Islands, Sri Lanka, St. Kitts and Nevis, St. Lucia, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, Suriname, Tanzania, Timor-Leste, Togo, Tonga, Trinidad and Tobago, Tuvalu, Uganda, Uzbekistan, Vanuatu, Zambia and Zimbabwe.
According to Spotify, its full global music catalog will be available in each of the new markets and the entire podcast catalog will be available in the majority of them.
