Entrepreneur July 201274|

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The legal advantageMusic from the clouds for the MENA region? With Anghami, a new internet-

based music service, co-founders Elie Habib and Eddy Maroun are working to make streaming music more fun than stealing.

nghami first got its momentum on the slopes. “I used to take my wife’s iPod when I went skiing,” recalls

co-founder Eddy Maroun. “And every time I’d have to see what was available on my computer and re-build all of my playlists. I just don’t like the experience of syncing at all.” What followed for Maroun was the concept of a regional cloud music service, an idea pioneered most visibly by the 2008 Swedish start-up Spotify. At its core, the concept is to provide unlimited streaming music across mobile phones, tablets, and computers for a membership fee. Songs can also be downloaded for o!ine play, but are accessible only so long as the user still subscribes to the service. An algorithm provides suggestions of what music you may like based on past selections. Maroun’s idea and business acumen received the technical support and ingenuity of Elie Habib in the venture, a long time web entrepreneur who’d received a masters in so"ware engineering in 1997. Their goal? “We want to pirate the pirates,” Maroun declares. Access to the most recent music in MENA is largely limited to either the radio or illegal downloading – the la#er a way of life for many worldwide. But Habib and Maroun knew that just o$ering a legal means would hardly win them the fan base the enterprise needed. “Ge#ing people to pay for music today isn’t easy,” Maroun admits. Instead, they’ve tried to make the user experience one worth paying for. A user experience, in other words, so clean, so easy to use, and enjoyed by so many of your friends, that you’ll part with a few dollars a month to join in. “We’ve decided to bank our futures on it – literally,” says Habib. “But for me, at my age, it’s the right thing to do. Even though my wife asked me, ‘why would you quit a good job and risk everything?’” When Habib and Maroun began working in earnest on Anghami in the winter of 2011, they found they’d hatched the idea at the right moment. The Arab Spring had

sprung and record labels were seeing fewer deals come across their desks with the deterioration of the regional economy. When the two partners began approaching labels with the idea of licensing music out to their start-up, they found those at the other end of the table flexible enough to negotiate. Anghami has since secured deals with such regional labels as Rotana, Melody, and Mazika, along with the big international players Sony Music, EMI, and Warner Music. With the green light from the music industry, the partners began pu#ing their energy into building the platform. But rather than start with a website, they went straight to mobile apps. “I call it the Instagram way,” says Maroun. “We believe mobile is the way now – especially for music.” An invite-online beta is scheduled for early this summer. Habib and Maroun expect the public launch to take place a"er Ramadan ends. Their objective is to make the user’s experience as social as possible. Anghami will be a way to meet people, particularly regionally relevant in the Gulf countries. Members will be able to share music, find others who share the same music tastes, and talk about what they’re listening to. The partners’ vision, legwork, personal investment, and accomplished résumés also

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a#racted Middle East Venture Partners, who have signed on to help capitalize the venture. Habib and Maroun had previously worked together at PowerMeMobile, a mobile solutions provider Habib founded with the An-Nahar media group. Habib has a history of ge#ing a#ention online. As a partner brought on to Naharnet in 2000 to help develop their web portal, he was soon garnering the site millions of hits with a creative deal to o$er visitors free text messages. The numbers compared with what was happening at the time in the States. “It was like an online happy hour,” Habib says. Yet with Anghami, Habib and Maroun hope for more than business success. “There just aren’t enough regional success stories for entrepreneurs,” Habib declares. They’ve kept their o%ces in Lebanon, not only because it’s home, but out of the desire to help reverse the country’s brain-drain. “We want to show young Lebanese that there are other options,” Habib explains. “When my father found out I wasn’t going to be a doctor, he didn’t speak with me for weeks. I want students to know that with computer science, you can create something. You work for long periods in front of a computer screen, and then something virtual comes to life. This is magical. We’re wizards.” PH

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