Apple Music Expands to Morocco and 20 African Countries in Major Global Push

In an effort to strengthen its global presence, Apple Music is now available in 167 countries, with a foothold in some African countries. These are Morocco, Cameroon, Côte d’Ivoire, the Democratic Republic of Congo, and Rwanda. Apple has thus just carried out its largest expansion of services to new markets in ten years. This platform, the second in terms of music streaming, aims to diversify its revenues, according to a group press release.

According to a group vice president, Apple Music had around 60 million subscribers in June 2019. He also said that the scope of the App Store (its mobile app store), Apple Arcade (video games), Apple Podcasts and iCloud (cloud storage), has grown from 155 to 175 markets. Spotify, available in fewer markets, had 124 million subscribers at the end of 2019. According to Counterpoint, the music streaming market reached 358 million paid subscriptions worldwide in 2019, with a projection of over 450 million by the end of 2020, reports TV5.

The hitch is that the expansion took place in the midst of a health crisis, coupled with an economic crisis. Confinement has increased the use of entertainment platforms, that is to say video games and series. Abhilash Kumar, an analyst at Counterpoint, noted that the consumption of audio content via the Internet has shifted from music streaming to radio. The radio and television are turned on to follow the news; which has interrupted music streaming, he specified.

Thus, the task will not be easy for Apple’s new markets in Africa where the still very low standard of living does not allow spending on online music. This is why Apple has decided to offer six months of free trial to new users instead of the usual three months. The subscription price varies from country to country and music lists are offered according to geographical areas. "Afrobeats Hits" or "Ghana Bounce" for example.