Spotify Egypt Market Share [October 2023]: Mazikka Group and Sony Take Center Stage

For our third and final emerging market exploration, we’ll be setting our sights on Egypt🇪🇬, Africa's third most populous country, with around 100 million people, behind only Nigeria and Ethiopia.

In the Northern African region, some of the most significant music markets include Egypt, Senegal, and Morocco. In October, I dedicated time to tracking, scraping, and analyzing the consumption of Spotify users in Egypt and Morocco. However, we’ll focus on Egypt now and save Morocco for another time. I’m just one person 🤣 

Spotify made its way into Egypt in 2018, seeking to compete with services like Anghami, one of the leading music streaming platforms in that region. I recently wrote about Anghami becoming the first Arab tech company to be listed on NASDAQ (America) but it is currently facing some threats of being delisted from the stock market.

For emerging markets in the MENA (Middle East and North Africa) region, Egypt takes the lead as a thriving market, little wonder major labels have been involved in series of partnerships and acquisitions with local players of the Egyptian music industry in hopes of snagging market share. Recently, Universal Music Middle East & North Africa (MENA) teamed up with Harb Talent Management for a partnership that’ll focus on discovering and nurturing talent within the Egyptian market.

On the other hand, Sony Music Middle East entered an exclusive partnership with Egypt-based Craft Media for a deal that will also focus on signing and promoting Arabic artists and music throughout the Middle East. Warner, in 2021, bought a majority stake in Rotana Music, which is claimed to be one of the biggest record labels in the Middle East with a strong presence in Egypt.

The commercial potential for music rightsholders in the MENA region is undeniably promising as IFPI reveals it was the world's fastest-growing market in 2021 and the third-fastest-growing in 2022. Last year, the recorded music market in MENA experienced a 23.8% year-on-year growth, with streaming dominating the region at an impressive 95.5%. Recently, I shared the news about IFPI launching Official Charts in key MENA regions, including Egypt.

Like other emerging markets, Egypt has challenges with obtaining precise information for music ownership, consumption, and sales. The presence of an authoritarian government, as highlighted by industry professionals in the region, contributes to this difficulty. Also, the majority of Egyptians face issues with internet speed and limited bandwidth which, in turn, pose hurdles to smooth online experiences. Many Egyptians have also depended on telco bundles to facilitate access to streaming services.

So, before delving into market share analysis on platforms like Spotify, I first researched the dominant music players in the Egyptian market to know what to expect. Mazzika Group and Rotana Music emerged one of my top discoveries.

In case you missed it: 

Spotify Nigeria Market Share [October 2023]: NATIVE Steps Up While EMPIRE Keeps Pace

Spotify South Africa Market Share [October 2023]: Universal Music and Sony in Hot Lead

Overall Performance

In overall streams, Egypt stands strong with 84 million streams across more than 230 songs. This places Egypt at a similar level to South Africa, which recorded 86 million streams across 270 songs. However, Egypt falls slightly behind Nigeria, which boasts an impressive 115 million streams across over 250 songs. It's worth noting that Spotify was launched in both Egypt and South Africa in 2018, before making its way to Nigeria in 2021.

Weekly, Egyptian listeners contribute an average of 20 million streams on Spotify. In comparison, South Africa records 20 million streams, while Nigeria takes the lead with 28.9 million streams. When we break it down further, we see that Egyptians generate an average of 2.7 million streams per day, while South Africa reaches 2.8 million, and Nigeria leads with 3.8 million streams daily.

Amidst a myriad of old and new releases, taking the lead is "مخصماك" by Nawal, which seized the top spot with an impressive 1,154,275 streams from listeners in Egypt. Nipping at its heels is "اختياراتي - من فيلم مستر إكس" by Ahmed Saad, securing second place with 1,139,245 streams. Following closely in third place is "Ya Layaly" also by Ahmed Saad and Ruby, amassing 1,105,917 streams across Egypt.

Have a look at the 10 most streamed records, their week-on-week, and total performance across Egypt, South Africa, and Nigeria.

EGYPT

South Africa

Nigeria

Top 20 Market Share Snapshot

Mazikka Group clinched the top spot with four tracks that collectively garnered a remarkable 3,933,052 streams. This translates to a 20.8% market share, further solidifying their dominance in the Egyptian market. Taking a closer look at the releases that contributed to this feat are:

1. "اختياراتي - من فيلم مستر إكس" by Ahmed Saad (1,139,245 streams)

2. “Ya Layaly” by Ahmed Saad and Ruby (1,105,917 streams)

1. “Mesh Nadman” by Muslim - مُسلِم (889,094 streams)

1. “Aleb Fel Dafater” by Muslim - مُسلِم (798,796 streams)

Krakeb Entertainment secures second place, with three tracks hitting a total of 2,664,078 streams, which represents a 14.1% market share in the Top 20. Their triumph was fueled by success of the following releases:

1. "نص سيطو مني ( احنا صحاب بلادنا )" by Essam Sasa (1,011,021 streams)

1. “مسا مني ليكوا” by Essam Sasa (898,065 streams)

1. “قراميط قراميط و الهلافيت عاملين مظابيط (صحبي اللي اداك يدينا )” by Karim Cristiano (754,992 streams)

Be it music or tech (two industries I’m active in), exploring emerging markets is not for kids. It’s so humbling, considering the many roadblocks you’re subjected to 😂. I mean, I knew venturing into the Egyptian market wouldn’t be easy but I never guessed it’d be this TOUGH. So tough I had to ditch Morocco to catch my breath and regroup as it was taking way more time and energy than I bargained.

Nonetheless, I enjoyed the process of attempting to unravel the Egyptian market. From being a native English speaker struggling to piece together fragments of information as Egypt is a predominantly Arabic-speaking country; to deciphering the various rightsholders of specific releases. You know anything concerning music rights can be very complicated as it could extend through multiple layers from distributor to labels and this is one of those information that isn’t always publicly accessible. So, you have to dig and dig every source possible.

This took my whole weekend and nights but I must say I had fun doing this - from Nigeria to South Africa and Egypt (and Morocco in my worksheet 🤣).

I’m already seeing how each region is performing in November thus far and I can’t wait to collate them by the first week of December.