It’s official: Spotify is now live in South Africa [Update]

The streaming music world’s worst kept secret is finally confirmed to be true: Spotify will today launch in South Africa, the company’s representatives confirmed in an email to Memeburn.

The news comes after numerous taunts and hints, including a rumoured Vodacom partnership in 2014, an oh-so-revealing job posting last year, and an invitations to a media event in Johannesburg last week.

South Africa will be the Swedish music streaming service’s first foray into Africa, as it looks to bolster its 160-million user base.

But gaining users may not be so easy. The South African streaming market is congested, with the likes of Deezer, Google Play Music, and the biggest player in the country Apple Music, all vying for a piece of the streaming pie.

More details will be made available later today, so stay tuned for pricing, service and content announcements.

Update, 13 March 2018: As the website shows, the service is available in free and premium flavours. The latter option matches Google Play Music and Apple Music at R60 a month. Not sure whether you’d like to take the premium plunge? Then you can try it out for 30 days.

The free version features ads and radio stations with limited skips (so you can’t listen to any track you want). Opt for the premium version and you have access to any track you want, offline functionality, high quality audio and ad-free playback. Check out the website over here.

Feature image: Memeburn