Experiential Music Labs: The Future of Streaming?
Arabic streaming app and $250 Million worth Spotify rival- Anghami announced that it was launching music labs across Dubai, London and LA, as a unique offline concept
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Happy Friday everyone!
Usually, I round up the newsletter on Fridays with what’s happened in the music industry for that week 📅
However, today’s story was just too interesting to resist.
Arabic music streaming app ‘Anghami’ has announced plans to roll out a new hybrid entertainment venue called the ‘Anghami Lab’ in multiple cities worldwide, and the concept sounds absolutely insane.
Never heard of Anghami? That makes the two of us 😅
However, after digging into this company a bit, I discovered that it’s absolutely crushing it in the Middle Eastern and North African (MENA) market 🤑
Founded in November 2012 by serial entrepreneurs Eddy Maroun and Elie Habib, based out of Beirut, Lebanon; Anghami was the first legal music streaming player in the Middle East, a market that has traditionally struggled to contain pirated music.
Launched initially only as a mobile app with the slogan "The idea is that everywhere you go, you’ll find your music", it has pivoted into much more since then.
Licensing agreements with major international and Arabic music labels, along with partnerships with top telecom providers and music players, means that Anghami now has a full suite of music listening experience 👇🏻
The company has built a strong regional footprint, adding 39,000 Arabic artists with an arsenal of 600,000 songs, and 4 million international artists with around 56 million songs to its platform; which it serves to its 8 million monthly active user base.
Similar to Spotify, Anghami has lost money since its inception.
However, the company has been on a great trajectory over the past 4 years (2017–2020) as it has significantly improved unit economics by:
✅ Nearly doubling revenues, mostly through new premium subscriptions.
✅ Increasing gross profits by 400 percent.
✅ Reducing EBITDA losses by 97 percent.
In 2020, the company lost a mere $200,000 on $31 million of revenues. Their income statement looks something like this 👇🏻
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Enough of the nerdy finance stuff, what’s the Anghami Lab all about? 🤔
Positioning the concept as the first to combine both online music streaming and offline worlds, the venue will feature a Lounge, Stage, and Studio where artists can experiment “by co-creating music inspired by both Arabic and international cultures to be performed in the venue”.
The resulting music created out of these ‘labs’ will be made available exclusively on Anghami and the company says that its app will also provide unique features complementing both experiences.
Not bad right?
The first venue is slated to open in Dubai in early 2022, followed by launches in Riyadh, Jeddah, Cairo, Beirut, and other global cities such as London, New York, and Los Angeles.
To launch the new concept, Anghami has partnered with hospitality group Addmind, whose portfolio of venues includes restaurants, bars, lounges, beach clubs, and nightclubs across Dubai, Abu Dhabi, Beirut, Qatar, and London.
Imagine walking into seeing your favorite artist jam and work on their music right in front of you, and being able to chill with them in these futuristic music labs being planned by Anghami 🏣
How cool would that be? 🤩
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