Global music streaming giant, Spotify, is bringing its services to South Africa! I know that a lot of us having been patiently waiting for Spotify South Africa to arrive, and it appears as if that will happen this March.
Music is, quite literally, the soundtrack of life. I do not know a single person that can go without it for extended periods of time. Neither do I know anyone who does not have at least a couple of personal favourites that they like to jam to whenever the occasion arises. For the longest time, the local South African market has only had services like Deezer and Simfy to turn to. There are obviously free services out there as well, but Apple Music changed the premium service market when it launched in South Africa in 2015. Now, Spotify seems to have finally followed suit. Only took them a few years, and then some.
Spotify South Africa is set to makes its local debut later this month, with a highly secretive press event taking place on 13 March. What exactly will be revealed at the event remains a mystery to us. However, we can promise you that it will most likely unveil prices and subscriptions, as well as exactly how much of the Spotify music library South African users can access
Speculation about the arrival of Spotify South Africa started in early 2017. The global company posted a local job advertisement for a senior editor and music programmer. This was weird, and I, personally, blew it off since I figured that such an announcement would obviously be made via official channels.
The advertisement in question suggested that Spotify South Africa would finally arrive on our shores. An actual, real-life service that most of the world has been enjoying for years. Although pricing is still unavailable, we can estimate what the service may cost by looking at the United States tier model that Spotify has implemented.
In the United States, Spotify has different subscription tiers. The $ 10 USD tier (around R100 ZAR) offers limited skips and features, and also includes access to the entire library of music. The $15 USD tier (around R150 ZAR) offers full access to everything the service has to offer, including offline downloads and unlimited skips. The prices are not bad at all! I am curious, however, to see how it will stack up to my current Apple Music subscription of just R60 ZAR a month. It must also be noted that Spotify also has a free subscription, which allows for very basic functionality.
Whatever the case may be, this is a good move for the company. After all, Spotify is the world’s largest global music streaming subscription service with over 160 million users. Of which at least 71 million of those are premium paying members. The numbers are nothing to take lightly.
While we do not know the specifics of the press event taking place later this month, be sure to keep your eyes on this spot as we get filled in with the deets.
[Sources: Forbes, TechCentral]
Junior Editor at Vamers. From Superman to Ironman; Bill Rizer to Sam Fisher and everything in-between, Edward loves it all. He is a Bachelor of Arts student and English Major specialising in Language and Literature. He is an avid writer and casual social networker with a flare for all things tech related.