Claudius Boller is Spotify’s Managing Director for Middle East, North Africa, and South Asia (excluding India). Since joining Spotify in 2017, Claudius has been instrumental in planning the audio streaming platform’s entry into the region.

Claudius boasts 20 years of strategy, commercial, and music industry experience covering a wide variety of sectors including technology, digital media, and entertainment. Previously, he was Vice President of Digital and Business Development at Universal Music Group, where he helped develop the company’s strategy in MENA and brought Dubai’s operation and business to life.

Following are the edited excerpts of a recent virtual conversation BR Research had with Mr. Claudius Boller:

BR Research: How many markets is Spotify operating in now?

Claudius Boller: Spotify currently operates in 184 markets. This time last year, we expanded into 80+ new markets worldwide, including Pakistan, Sri Lanka, and Bangladesh.

BRR: How do you see your growth in Pakistan’s market after a year? We hear that it is one of the best-performing markets?

CB: Well, our first year in Pakistan has been incredible. Pakistan has shown immense potential with the visible rise of a new generation of creators and artists. We have also witnessed Pakistani culture crossover with local artists finding global fans. It was great to see the UK and the US among the top 3 countries with the highest global streams of Pakistani music, with India being the third.

We have been blown away by the response to our launch in Pakistan and Spotify’s fanfare ahead of our arrival. So, we took our time to continuously gauge the feedback we received while understanding how our platform could evolve in a thriving market with a unique social and cultural diversity.

Since our launch in the region, it has been a continuous learning curve for us as a market, but we are pleased with the results and excited to see our growth exceeding our expectations

BRR: What interesting trends have you noticed in Pakistan’s market?

CB: To be honest, we have seen many exciting trends. For instance, we’ve continued to see a growing appetite for local indie and local hip-hop, with Hasan Raheem and Young Stunners among the most-streamed local artists in Pakistan. Our Pakistani listeners also are very connected to global music and similar to the rest of the world, they are listening to Justin Bieber, The Weeknd and BTS!

While pop remains a key genre, our data has also shown other genres making it big out there. With 11 percent of the Pakistani indie genre streamed in the US, and a growth in streams of 150 percent globally in the last year. Additionally, Pakistani Electronic is gaining momentum locally and internationally, with 23 percent of the genre streamed in the US, Canada, UK, and Germany.

We also witnessed how much people love Coke Studio reflected on Spotify via the top-searched playlist titles. We loved seeing this because we have partnered with them this year as their official music streaming platform.

BRR: How would you define Spotify’s role in bringing a positive change in the music industry of Pakistan?

CB: We are committed to becoming the number one platform that elevates artists and their music, enabling them to create more and succeed. And here, we are not catering to the big names only; we are giving equal opportunities to everyone who uses our platform to showcase their talent. To give you an example, a few months ago, we launched a playlist called “Fresh Finds Pakistan”. This playlist is dedicated to helping independent artists get discovered by fans all over the world.

Then, through our keen observation into the music industry dynamics, we also realized and understood that women artists still lack presence or opportunities to get equal space in many markets, Pakistan included. Knowing that women artists have always had an enormous impact on Pakistan’s culture and music, we saw Aima Baig become the most-streamed woman artist for Wrapped 2021; we have some exciting plans in the works, which you’ll learn about very soon.

We are also doubling our efforts on educating Pakistani creators about streaming through Spotify for Artists and masterclasses. Spotify for Artists puts real listeners’ data directly in the hands of artists for free. And that’s something artists didn’t have access to before. From providing new ways for artists to express themselves, creating more chances to be discovered, and giving artists the ability to pitch their music for playlist consideration, we continue to build new ways to surface artists to fans. As a result, thousands of creators from Pakistan have been onboarded and joined our sessions, and we are excited to be part of their growth journey.

BRR: What is Spotify doing to support local talent?

CB: We have a local team dedicated to educating creators about streaming and introducing them to Spotify for Artists. We also provide tools like Soundtrap that puts the capabilities of a full professional recording studio in the cloud giving artists a powerful way to collaborate. So, if you are a songwriter in Pakistan, you can lay the groundwork for a track and kick it over to a producer in Brazil and finish it in real-time. It’s also a place where you can learn how to create. Thousands of teachers worldwide on Soundtrap are educating the next generation of creators.

There’s also SoundBetter. It’s like a networking place for musicians, sound engineers, and songwriters to come together and collaborate. Both these tools enable creators to form bonds regardless of their geographical location.

Additionally, our playlist pitching tool lets artists add valuable information about their music to enable our music team to make better decisions about where a song might find its ideal audience. Local talents’ road to discovery starts from here, and we are happy to pave the way for them through the power of our playlisting.

BRR: How would you compare your products to your competitors?

CB: Piracy is our main competition. While there have been promising developments on the supply side of the music streaming ecosystem, millions of music fans still have to experience conversion away from piracy towards free and legal music. We are determined to increase the consideration of making streaming a mass legal lifestyle choice, and from thereon, we want to evolve the consumer mindset towards paid subscriptions.

On the product front, we are committed to innovation and personalization. We’re not just an app where you stream music; we are more than that. We want to be the soundtrack of your life.

BRR: Any plans of launching Radar program in Pakistan?

CB: We do have plans to bring our emerging artists support program RADAR to Pakistan. However, you’ll have to wait until we have a date to share.

BRR: How do you see the Pakistani market compared to regional markets (markets that were launched at the same time)?

CB: After completing a year here, we are humbled to see Pakistan among the newly launched markets with the most streams since launch. The Pakistan music scene is vibrant and very proud of being local. Pakistanis have a long and successful history of celebrating and embracing their music. They are hyperlocal in their celebration and are proud of their unique sounds and artists while also being open to international songs and artists. I think this is why Spotify’s arrival to Pakistan was incredibly well-received. Our platform helped enhance and amplify what has already been created in the country.

BRR: How do you see the positive indicators for your service growth in Pakistan, such as the increasing use of smartphone users etc.?

CB: Very positively! We will continue to improve our experience across the spectrum of devices that reflect what our users want. Our ambition is to take users on a journey to reevaluate audio and get more out of their lives with content from creators—in the right place at the right time. So, it might not come as a surprise that Spotify is currently available on more than 2000 devices from more than 200 brands. This stems from the need to deliver a simple solution for all, including our users, partners, and creators. In addition, we want to ensure that Spotify aligns more deeply with the multiple devices in your life, whether it’s your phone or a gaming console so that you won’t need to find the songs to suit the moment; instead, the songs will find you. And this is what most users want, after all; to always find and have access to the music that suits each moment and matches their taste.

BRR: What are your future plans for Pakistan?

CB: Our focus is to progressively build our platform through our audio first mission based on innovation inspired by our users. Spotify is the world’s most popular audio platform with over 406 million users globally, and our goal is to continue leading the audio revolution through the best on-platform and offline experiences. We are committed to taking that responsibility to establish a sustainable and supportive ecosystem for the artist communities around the world.