Last week’s reports of an imminent Spotify launch in Russia were correct, but it’s part of a wider expansion in eastern Europe for the streaming service.
Yesterday, it launched in 13 new countries in the region: Russia plus Albania, Belarus, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Kazakhstan, Kosovo, Moldova, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Serbia, Slovenia and Ukraine.
The launches came with 200 new playlists focusing on artists from the region, with five of the countries getting Spotify’s free and premium tiers, and the other eight getting those plus its family, student and couple subscriptions.
Russia was the 17th biggest recorded music market in the world last year according to the IFPI – and it was one of the fastest growing countries too, with revenues up by 50.3% year-on-year to $171.7m.
Streaming revenues in Russia grew by 75.8% in 2019 to $134.1m – just over 78% of the total – with Midia Research estimating that Russia had 7.5 million streaming subscribers by the end of March this year.
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