By Hamed Mahmoud
Ahead of its historic listing on NASDAQ New York, Anghami, the Middle East and North Africa’s (MENA) largest music platform, announces the launch of its live music and voice experience, ‘Live Radio’. Developed in-house by Anghami, this is the first time that a streaming service globally is enabling users and contributors to create a social audio experience for sharing music, conversation and more.
Available on both iOS and Android, Live Radio offers a number of unique features. Any user, including artists, DJs, content creators and music influencers, will be able to talk alongside playing songs, playlists and podcasts from Anghami’s library of over 57 million tracks. It gives everyone the chance to participate in a real-time version of a podcast experience and, by creating their own virtual events, users will be able to bring together communities with live interaction. Other features include applauding the host, sending text comments, meeting other participants and side-chats.
Elie Habib, Co-founder and Chairman of Anghami, commented, “The social elements of music have always been part of our vision. In fact, ‘live radio rooms’ were part of our original business pitch in 2011, as we saw the opportunity for social audio features to take off. Having been integrating social features such as stories and chats since 2017, now we are leading the way in delivering the next level of social audio to our users and our contributors. With the pandemic keeping people at home and apart, the intimacy of voice and the need to be closer to others has become more valuable and we expect to see the social audio market realise significant growth.”
Anghami launched Live Radio in beta in mid-2020, featuring text chats and other functionality ahead of the full launch which now includes voice chat for the first time ever. Data from the beta-phase demonstrates the additional benefits for Anghami in terms of user engagement and retention. For example, active social users have a 30% higher retention rate and social users overall stream 33% more average daily seconds than a standard active user.
Elie Habib added, “Anghami has an established track record and user base which continues to help us build and leverage our wide range of consumer behavioral data to create local experiences. Our beta launch in mid-2020 displayed how focusing on creating communities and adding interaction has been our best strategic asset, boosting engagement and retention – and a tribute to the region and the music that brings it together.”
What’s more, Live Radio continues to build on Anghami’s commitment to supporting new and established creative talent, with the forthcoming launch of Premium Live Radio and tokens providing the opportunity for artists and creators to introduce subscription-only channels and other revenue streams.
Best known for legalizing the Arab music streaming market amid high levels of piracy, and working with local artists to monetize their work, Anghami has already found success through hosting several content creators and Arab artists such as Maya Diab, Now United and others, where users were able to talk to celebrities, artists and listeners and connect in innovative new ways. Anghami will become the first Arab technology company to list on NASDAQ New York via a merger with Vistas Media Acquisition Company Inc. (NASDAQ: VMAC), a publicly traded special purpose acquisition company.
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