Before I start answering this question, I would like to say two things first; one, there is a way to make Spotify work even in Uganda if you are willing to go the extra mile, and two –there’s no organization in this world (except a few) who don’t want to expand including this popular streaming platform.
So, it’s not that Spotify isn’t available in Uganda because they don’t want to expand. They surely want to expand, not only in Uganda but in almost all countries in the world. In fact, think about it yourself, why wouldn’t Spotify want to expand into other African countries where it’s not? It doesn’t make sense to some people who are actually enjoying other services like Netflix and not Spotify.
ALSO READ: Spotify Lite is now officially available for emerging markets
Moving on to the main part of the answer, there are several reasons why Spotify isn’t available in Uganda. Music licensing, copyright, and Intellectual property is one such trouble and it’s the legal equivalent of herding sheep in space. Launching in a new market involves thousands of hours of legalese and negotiations with many people spanning many companies, and there are also generally large upfront investments needed, often of several million dollars. Even with all that work, things will only be partially under their (Spotify) control – they will need others to allow them to have their music on the service – until they’ve managed to convince the major labels in a country like T-Series, Sony Music Company to name a few, they simply cannot launch.
Copyright enforcement is more difficult in countries like Uganda that don’t have solid Intellectual Property laws, like those in Europe, the Americas, and the rest of the developed world. Rather than have streaming content available in those countries, which would mean enforcement of laws in the event of piracy, streaming content providers such as Spotify, Pandora, and the likes prefer to stay away. The relatively small size of the markets in these countries, as in people who can access the Internet fast enough to allow streaming, is a further deterrent to investment.
ALSO READ: Why Music Streaming still refuses to take off in Uganda
I also can’t resist but mention that — though it’s not the reason why Spotify isn’t available in Uganda, it might be one of the highlights of this topic. Piracy, yes, you heard it right. The majority of Ugandans are so used to piracy that we won’t ever opt for paid subscriptions which is the primary source of Spotify’s revenue.
In the near future, even if Spotify is made available in Uganda, the number of paid subscribers will be very less in comparison to free users.
