Anghami

Not to be confused with Angham.
Anghami
Available inArabic, English, French
Founded2012; 12 years ago (2012)[1]
Headquarters
Abu Dhabi
,
UAE
Area servedArab world, 13 countries (full catalogue)[2]
Owner
  • OSN+ (2024–present)
Founder(s)Eddy Maroun
Elie Habib[3]
CEOEddy Maroun[4]
IndustryMusic
ServicesMusic streaming
Employees120 (2021)[5]
URLwww.anghami.com
RegistrationOptional
Users73 million+ (2023)[6]
Launched5 November 2012[1]
Current statusActive
Native client(s) onWindows, Symbian, Windows Phone, Linux, BlackBerry OS, Android, iOS, ChromeOS, macOS, MeeGo, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5 and Apple TV, WatchOS, Wear OS, Fitbit OS, Android TV, CarPlay, Chromecast, Android Auto
Written inAngular[7][circular reference]
JavaScript[8]

Anghami (Arabic: أنغامي ʾanġāmī [ʔanˈɣaːmi], "melodic"/"my melodies") is the first legal music streaming platform[9] and digital distribution company in the Arab world. It launched in November 2012 in Lebanon,[1] providing unlimited Arabic and international music to stream and download for offline mode.

It is designed for the Middle East and North Africa to provide the largest music catalog of licensed content from the major Arabic/regional labels such as Rotana Music Group, Melody, Mazzika, Platinum Records and many other independent labels, in addition to international majors labels such as Sony, Universal and Warner Music. It is one of the largest digital music ventures in the Middle East, seed funded by MEVP.[10][11]

On April 2, 2024, streaming platform OSN+ completed the acquisition of a 55.45% stake in Anghami.[12] In the previous month, MBC Group had already acquired a 13.7% stake in the Lebanese company.

History

The goal of Anghami was to reduce music piracy in the Arab world. The service was meant to serve as an alternative to piracy.[13]

Anghami was founded by Eddy Maroun, and Elie Habib in Lebanon,[3] launched initially as a mobile only app with the slogan "The idea is that everywhere you go, you’ll find your music". One of Anghami's app features is Dolby Pulse encoding, which reduces the file size of streamed music for faster and reliable online streaming when the internet bandwidth is fluctuating.[14] Anghami has more than 35 telecom partners.[15]

Shortly after the partnership between Anghami and mobile operators in MENA has been agreed few months after launching,[16] the service experienced rapid growth with 1 million registered users four months after the launch.[17] However, the next million was reached in three months, mainly after partnering with the major media player MBC Group Middle East Broadcasting Center that featured Anghami in one of its most successful TV shows Arab Idol.[18] In 2013, Anghami partnered with Facebook.[15]

Map of full-catalog availability of Anghami music streaming service
Anghami Full-catalog availability

By 2017, Anghami reached 30 million listeners, with 75% of users being in the Arab region.[19] In 2019, Anghami's founder revealed in an interview that Anghami has 21 million monthly active users and 1 million paying subscribers.[20]

In March 2021, Anghami became the first Arabic technology company to list on New York's Nasdaq through a Special Purpose Acquisition Company (SPAC) merger with Vistas Media Acquisition Company and the company was valued at between $220 million and $230 million.[21]

In August 2021, Anghami announced plans to launch a new hybrid entertainment venue named the Anghami Lab in multiple cities worldwide, including Dubai, Riyadh, Jeddah, Cairo, Beirut, London, New York and Los Angeles.[22]

See also

References

  1. ^ a b c "Lebanon's Anghami Launches the First Music Streaming Platform for the Middle East". Curley, Nina. 5 November 2012. Wamda. Archived from the original on 28 December 2013.
  2. ^ Algeria, Bahrain, Egypt, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Morocco, Oman, Palestine, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Tunisia, and UAE: "Anghami: Description, Go Live Time, Territories, How They Sell Your Music, Pay Rate". Tunecore. 9 August 2016. Archived from the original on 28 May 2021. Retrieved 1 March 2017.
  3. ^ a b "Anghami: The journey of launching an unlimited music streaming service in the Middle East". The Next Web. 2012-05-26. Archived from the original on 2015-08-24. Retrieved 2015-08-03.
  4. ^ "Company Overview of Anghami". Bloomberg Business. Archived from the original on 2015-09-23. Retrieved 2015-08-03.
  5. ^ "Anghami: Moving through the entrepreneurship ecosystem". Executive Magazine. Archived from the original on 2015-07-22. Retrieved 2015-08-03.
  6. ^ "Artist Connect". UBM plc. Archived from the original on 2018-03-09. Retrieved 2018-03-09.
  7. ^ "Site Info - Anghami.com". Archived from the original on 2019-03-24. Retrieved 2019-02-20.
  8. ^ "Site Info - Anghami.com". Archived from the original on 2019-02-20. Retrieved 2019-02-20.
  9. ^ Melki, Joanna (2020-03-04). "Anghami Review: The MENA's Favorite Music Streaming Service". Tech Magazine. Retrieved 2023-05-10.
  10. ^ "Anghami, the leading music streaming platform in the Middle East and North Africa, merges with Vistas Media Acquisition Company Inc. to become first Arab technology company to list on NASDAQ New York". MEVP. Middle East Venture Partners. Archived from the original on 28 April 2021. Retrieved 28 April 2021.
  11. ^ Anderson, Brooke. November 2012. The Daily Star "Connecting the world though music Archived 2013-12-28 at the Wayback Machine"
  12. ^ "OSN+ completes acquisition of majority stake in Anghami". Wamda. Retrieved 2024-04-03.
  13. ^ Bissat, Bana. April 29, 2013. YourMiddleEast Anghami mobile app beats music piracy in the Middle East Archived 2013-12-28 at the Wayback Machine
  14. ^ George, Anil. 12 October 2012. T3 Middle East. "Dolby partners with Lebanon-based music streaming service Anghami Archived 2013-12-28 at the Wayback Machine"
  15. ^ a b samuel-wendel (2017-03-09). "Eddy Maroun wanted to listen to music while skiing in Faraya, a Lebanese mountain resort". Forbes Middle East. Archived from the original on 2017-10-17. Retrieved 2017-10-17.
  16. ^ Aline Mayard, February 12, 2013. Wamda. "Can Anghami Fend Off Deezer's Entrance into the Arab Music Market? Archived 2013-12-28 at the Wayback Machine"
  17. ^ Rooney, Ben. March 22, 2013. The Wall Street Journal. Beirut Streaming Music Startup Targets Mid East, Africa Archived 2017-10-17 at the Wayback Machine
  18. ^ July 23, 2013. Zawya. Maroun, Habib: Music streaming business remains a challenge Archived 2013-12-28 at the Wayback Machine"
  19. ^ Carolina Valladeres (30 January 2017). "How we started the Arab world's biggest music service". BBC News. Archived from the original on 19 October 2017. Retrieved 2 February 2017.
  20. ^ Paracha, Zubair (2019). "Anghami now has over 21 million MAUs, 1 million paying subscribers and it's not afraid of competition from Spotify or Deezer". MENA Bytes. Archived from the original on 28 April 2021. Retrieved 28 April 2021.
  21. ^ "Anghami to be first Arabic tech firm to list on Nasdaq New York". Arab News. 2021-03-03. Archived from the original on 2021-05-28. Retrieved 2021-03-03.
  22. ^ "Spotify rival Anghami to launch entertainment venues in Dubai, London, L.A. and more cities worldwide". Music Business Worldwide. 3 August 2021. Retrieved 2021-08-05.