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Streaming platform, Spotify has announced its expansion to more than 80 new countries in Asia, the Caribbean, Latin America, Europe with many of them in Africa.
The expansion will make the platform available to more than a billion people around the world with 36 news languages including Swahili and supporting more than 60 languages in total.
With a total of more than 180 markets that have access to the service, it is Spotify’s broadest expansion to date.
In Africa, Spotify was only available in South Africa, Morocco, Egypt, Algeria and Tunisia. However, the platform will now be accessed in 40 additional African markets including Kenya, Angola, Benin, Zimbabwe, Senegal, Gabon, Nigeria and more.
According to the company, the new Spotify countries will have the ability to sign up for free and paid Premium plans; in select markets, with offers for Individual, Family, Duo and Student Plan options available.
The platform will be available on mobile and with its desktop web player, with some exceptions. The company is looking to introduce Spotify on more platforms, including TVs, speakers, wearables and cars in the coming months.
Listeners will be able to select and search from Spotify’s worldwide catalogue, one that may be limited by licensing rights, but Spotify said it “will continuously work with local rights holders and partners to expand its catalogue to include more local offerings.”
In the majority of these markets, Spotify will launch with its full podcast catalogue, with some exceptions. For the others, the company said it will work with local partners to introduce more podcasts.
Spotify said that its expansion into new local markets would work to make the service available as quickly as possible in as many places as possible, so some markets will launch with a core library of content and features that will evolve over time.
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