Kenya is one of the 11 countries in which music platform Spotify has launched a video streaming service, taking on Google’s YouTube which has dominated the audio-visual space globally.
Spotify on Wednesday announced that it is rolling out music video streaming for premium users in 11 of its markets, of which Kenya is the only African country.
“We’re excited to launch music videos in beta for Spotify Premium users across 11 markets, adding another way to enhance the artist-to-fan connection,” the Swedish-owned audio streaming service provider said in a statement.
Spotify users will now also be able to stream videos in the United Kingdom, Germany, Netherlands, Poland, Sweden, Brazil, Colombia, Philippines, and Indonesia.
This could change the market dynamics for YouTube, which just recently launched a premium service in Kenya and whose audio streaming platform, YouTube Music, is currently trailing Spotify in terms of the global music streaming market share.
Kenya is an important market for Spotify, as about 9.4 percent of internet users aged between 16 and 64 years currently pay for audio streaming services such as Spotify, according to data by digital monitoring firm Meltwater.
At the same time, about a third of Kenyans with internet access listen to a music streaming service at least once every week, the highest number in an African country, falling behind only Nigeria where 35 percent use such platforms regularly.
YouTube currently controls the majority of global video streaming, but this has largely been driven by music video streaming, which is among the top content people view on the Google-owned platform.
According to Spotify’s Vice President Charlie Hellman, the introduction of music videos on their platform targets to boost user experience, taking them “from being a listener to leaning in and becoming a fan.”
