Anghami, the Arab World’s Most Popular Music Streaming Platform
By: Mariam Alyakoob / Arab America Contributing Writer
What is Anghami?
Anghami is a digital music streaming service that is most commonly used in the Arab world.
Similar to Spotify, Anghami uses a subscription based business model for revenue, being their biggest source at 65% of total revenue. They also offer free based subscriptions as well as different types of paid subscriptions. Unlike the paid subscription, the free version includes paid advertisements, which makes up the remaining 35% of their revenue.
How Anghami was Founded
According to Forbes Middle East, Anghami was founded in 2012 by Lebanese entrepreneurs Eddy Maroun and Elie Habib. The idea was formed after Maroun was having difficulty listening to music while at a ski resort. Then the thought of Spotify came up and the ease of having songs already downloaded on the user’s device.
This idea brought forward Anghami, now the Arab world’s most commonly used streaming service. The creators also helped reduce piracy and intellectual property theft in the region, given that beforehand many people resorted to illegally downloading music and MP3s on their devices.
Anghami’s Appeal
One of the biggest appeals for Anghami is that they have created exclusive deals with some of the most famous Arab singers to be the only streaming service to download their music. An example would be the content deal signed between Anghami and the famous Egyptian singer, Amr Diab. Forbes Middle East actually named Amr Diab the number 1 Arab singer from a list of 10, followed closely by Nancy Ajram and Elissa. Amr Diab is also the most streamed artist on Anghami with close to 1 billion streams.
Anghami announced the deal with Diab’s record label, Ney Studios, that his songs would only be featured on Anghami being deleted from all other streaming platforms such as Spotify, Apple Music, and even Youtube. The only exception to this is a smaller number of songs that were produced by Diab’s previous record labels Rotana and Mazzika.
Amr Diab is not the only artist to have signed this Anghami exclusive content release deal, some other artists like Nour Helou and Rami Chalhoub have songs that are Anghami exclusives, listed within the section “Only on Anghami” on the application.
Anghami Algorithm and Play Count
The way Anghami personalizes its app and recommends songs for a given user is through data collected to create a music UserDNA, which represents that user’s specific song and music preferences. Anghami is used to track and analyze user preferences by the songs that have been liked, disliked, shared and added into a playlist. Using this, the app generates songs that seem as though they might fit.
Anghami also analyzes and counts listening times of their users. This is to analyze and categorize a song’s overall popularity. In order to ensure that plays are valid and played by humans, not computer programs, Anghami filters what they believe to be legitimate counts.
Categorizing Music by Genre
Anghami also filters music from different regions and genres through a category on their platform called “ Top by Genre”.
This allows users to identify the most popular and most played songs from the Arab World. Let’s explore the most popular music of November 1st, given that the popularity changes daily with increased plays:
Top Lebanese
- Artist: Bel Ahlam
- Song Name: Nassif Zeytoun
- Number of Plays: 2.9 million
Top Egyptian
- Artist: Farid
- Song Name: Beamaret Meen
- Number of Plays: 6.2million
Top Khaleeji
- Artist: Majid Almohandis
- Song Name: Oud Albkhour
- Number of Plays: 224 thousand
Top Maghreb
- Artists: Eljoeee & Chaama
- Song Name: Hiya Hiya
- Number of Plays: 4.9 million
Top Iraqi
- Artists: Rahma Riad
- Song Name: Assad LelGoumar
- Number of Plays: 1.7 million
Top Dabka
- Artists: Sara Al Zakaria
- Song Name: Tigi Netjawaz Bilser
- Number of Plays: 142 thousand
Top Maghranganat
- Artists: Essam Sasa
- Song Name: West Dmoa We Grah
- Number of Plays: 5.9 million
Top Arabic Hip Hop
- Artists: Wegz
- Song Name: El Bakht
- Number of Plays: 42.4 million
Top Shelat
- Artists: Nader Al Sharari
- Song Name: Temoun
- Number of Plays: 83.9 thousand
Top Arabic Indie
- Artists: Red Bull Sika (feat Hesham Abbas and Rahal)
- Song Name: Law Bs Nerga3
- Number of Plays: 1.4 million
To listen to more songs, go to Anghami’s website to listen to some amazing Arabic music!
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