PopArabia Founder Spek Predicts Seismic Shift in Music Landscape

PopArabia founder Spek predicts a huge shift in pop music is on the horizon as streaming services take hold in emerging markets. He also claims the days of Anglo-American hits dominating charts are numbered.

Spek laid out his predictions in an op-ed for Music Business Worldwide. “Pop is capricious, and she goes where the action is; and right now, the action is moving eastward,” he said.

From his early days with Canadian hip-hop pioneers Dream Warriors, Spek carved out a distinguished career as a recording artist. He collaborated with Nitin Sawhney on his Mercury Prize nominated album Beyond Skin and released music as a solo artist.

After moving to the UAE in 2006, Spek set up music publishing company PopArabia in Abu Dhabi. With PopArabia well established, Spek moved to the US to take a top job with independent music company Reservoir. Now he’s back in the UAE and heading up a new joint venture between the two companies.

Facts & Figures

The op-ed for Music Business Worldwide is loaded with interesting facts and figures. Spek details how, historically, due to rampant piracy in certain territories, the music industry made 80% – 90% of its revenue from just 10% – 20% of the world. “Streaming is changing that,” he said. He also points to a 2019 Goldman Sachs report that projected 1.15 billion people globally will pay for music streaming by 2030, and 68% of them will be located in emerging markets.

“Lessons learned from streaming in new markets has highlighted an underlying emphasis on local music,” said Spek. “While the business model of yesterday was the export of Anglo-American pop music around the world, this new normal underscores consumers’ hunger for content from native creators in local languages.”

“As we see the launch of new global streaming charts, aggregating streams from all services around the world for the first time, we must ask what will the Top 20 look like week-to-week, once emerging markets have built up their subscribers? Here’s a clue: it won’t be dominated by the Anglo-American hits that has defined our pop music for decades,” said Spek.

Incredible Growth

Spek outlines how the music industry is poised for incredible growth. “But it’s not because established English language pop stars will end up being 4X bigger than they already are. It’s because there’s new content expanding out of new markets. The influence of American and English language artists will continue, but the underlying fabric of pop is changing.”

In the Music Business Worldwide op-ed, Spek charts his own journey through music. He also details the history behind PopArabia. We highly recommend you take five minutes out your day to read his full insight. You can check it out here.

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