Donia Samir Ghanem, the prominent actress turned sensational Arab pop singer, recently released her latest album exclusively on YouTube via Roznama Music. The record label releases one single per week, until the entire album is finally released, on their YouTube channel, in addition to conducting a wide variety of promotional activities via Google+. The results were outstanding; one of her tracks achieved more than five million views in its first week and became the third most watched musical track on YouTube over the past week behind the global phenomenon, the music video by Miley Cyrus, Wrecking Ball.
Roznama Music is also the first record label in MENA to produce original content intended specifically for YouTube. It is owned by Hisham Gamal, who is 20 years old, one of the youngest producers in MENA and also the composer of Quesset Sheta, Donia’s latest hit single. The trend for artists and record labels shifting towards YouTube as a medium for exclusive releases has been on the rise over the past couple of years, particularly in the Middle East. This is on account of the widespread use of social media among youth as well as well as the rise in the use of smartphones. The usage of YouTube on smartphones in MENA is surpassing global averages with more than 50%, with 40% of total views in KSA and UAE originating from mobile devices and the global average standing at 25%.
Marketers and record label executives are increasingly aware of the importance of YouTube, not only as a platform for releasing exclusive content and reaching out to their core target demographic, but also as a tool for protecting their copyrights. The YouTube Partnership Program allows for record labels to monetise their music in order to circumvent piracy and illegal downloads of their content. This is in addition to ensuring that no copyright infringement of their original and copyrighted content occurs.
Other prominent artists who have taken to YouTube as a medium for the release of exclusive content to their fans include Ramy Gamal, Mohamed Hamaki, Rashid Al-Majid, Nancy Ajram and Samira Said among many others across the MENA region.
