Spotify is the biggest music streaming service in the world with 271 million monthly active users in the world as at the end of 2019. As of March 2020, Spotify is not officially available in Nigeria and there is no particular timeline as to when the service will be launching in Nigeria. In this post, we will be guiding you through how to use Spotify in Nigeria and unsupported countries.
Nigeria is Africa’s biggest music export to the world with a considerable number of globally recognized artists such as Davido, Wizkid, Dbanj and many more. It is very surprising that Spotify has not yet launched in Nigeria considering how big the music market is in the West African country. Nigerians are more familiar with Apple Music and the BoomPlay app which comes pre-installed on Transsion smartphones.
Spotify in Africa
In March 2018, Spotify made its foray into the African market by launching in South Africa and making its premium service available at R60 ($5) monthly. “Africa is exciting for us and we want to be in more countries but we have to look at which,” says Michael Krause, Spotify’s MD of Europe, Middle East and Africa.
Later in November in the same year, Spotify expanded its business to the Middle East and more African countries; Nigeria was still omitted. The streaming giant expanded its presence to the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Morocco, Algeria, Egypt, Tunisia, Lebanon, Jordan, Oman, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Kuwait and Palestine.
Citing the challenges that come with launching in new markets, Jeff Wlodarczak, an analyst told the BBC; “The gating factor in new markets (outside of China) tends to be the need to secure the music licenses from music royalty players and the need for on the ground advertising infrastructure for their free ad-supported product.” This may be why Spotify has not launched in Nigeria considering the difficulties. Faced in establishing a business properly in the country.
How to Use Spotify in Nigeria
Nigerians are smart and they always find a way around problems. Because the service is not yet available in Nigeria does not mean people have not been using it here. Let’s see how to use Spotify in Nigeria.
Apple Music will save you the stress of using a VPN as its streaming service is available in Nigeria.
- Download a free VPN app from Google Play or the iOS App Store. Tunnelbear, Cyberghost or Opera Free VPN will suffice. You only need one of this.
- Install the VPN app, you will also need to create a free account to start using it.
- Connect your VPN app to the internet and choose either the US or UK as your location.
- Open the internet browser on your phone and go to spotify.com, create a free account and verify with your email address.
- Download the Spotify app and install on your phone.
- Log in to the Spotify app with your email address and password.
- Launch and enjoy your music on the app.
Spotify works on the desktop as well, so you can download on your Windows or Mac computer. You will also need a VPN software.
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