Middle Eastern and African music markets show growing global impact in Luminate’s 2025 report

The 2025 Luminate Year-End Music Report has spotlighted some countries in the Middle East and Africa for their impact on international listening trends and growing premium streaming potential.

According to the report, Turkiye has ranked inside the global top 10 markets by net new premium on-demand streams in 2025, adding approximately 11.2 billion paid streams year-on-year. The figure places Turkiye ahead of several long-established European territories, including Spain, the UK and France, underlining a notable shift in how audiences in the country are engaging with subscription-based music platforms.

While several emerging markets continue to rely heavily on free tiers, Turkiye has increasingly mirrored Southern European listening behaviour, with paid streaming becoming the dominant mode of consumption. Within the report’s Premium Pricing analysis, this trend marks the country as one of Europe’s most commercially responsive digital music markets.

Beyond consumption, the report also highlights a broader recalibration of global music influence across the Middle East and Africa. In its Global Export Power Rankings, Nigeria led the Middle East & Africa region as the top music exporter, improving its overall global export power ranking to 19th from 23rd the previous year. The report attributes this rise to the international crossover success of Nigerian artists, whose Afrobeats-infused sounds are reshaping global playlists.

Nigeria also ranked as Africa’s “most local” market, with 62.2% of on-demand audio and video streams originating from domestic artists. Turkiye has been listed as the “most local” market across the MENA-T and Europe regions, with 69.9% of streams coming from local Turkish artists. In contrast, the United Arab Emirates proved to be the most open to external influences, drawing 91.6% of its streams from artists outside the region, while Ghana showed the strongest appetite for regional music inflows at 23.6%.

While several Middle Eastern and African countries have now surpassed one billion total on-demand streams annually, Luminate notes that much of this activity remains concentrated on ad-supported platforms. As a result, the region is characterised by high engagement and cultural reach, but comparatively low saturation in premium subscriptions, pointing to significant long-term monetisation potential.

Luminate CEO Rob Jonas described the Middle Eastern and African markets as holding "vast potential" for the year ahead, particularly as the industry shifts toward deeper integration with film, gaming and regional audience habits.

On the other hand, global on-demand audio song streams reached a record 5.1 trillion in 2025, up 9.6% from 4.7 trillion in 2024, according to the report. The staggering headline figure from the entertainment data firm highlights the industry’s ongoing global expansion, while revealing that mid-tier tracks, those with between one million and 50 million streams worldwide, accounted for nearly half (49%) of total streaming volume.

You can read Luminate's full Year-End Music Report 2025 here.