As Spotify continues to expand globally, smaller music streaming platforms in Africa, Asia and Russia are ready to fight back. A red bus idles on a street in Nairobi, and people pile inside to find red, music-themed decor filled with TVs playing music videos. Local streaming giant Boomplay Music is taking some of its most loyal Kenyan fans to Paintball Fury, where they’ll go head-to-head with Boomplay staffers. The outing is one way the company engages with the users who’ve made it the most popular music streaming platform in Africa. You wouldn’t know that by looking at a chart of the music streaming industry’s global revenues, where Spotify (a Swedish provider) and Apple together make up more than half the market, at 32 and 19 percent, respectively. But that’s because they’ve cornered the U.S. market, which remains by far the largest international market for paid music streaming — raking in $4.3 billion compared to the second-largest market, China’s $820 million. Now, as Spotify and Apple look to replicate their success in emerging markets, they’re coming up against a band of local market leaders who are using everything from protectionism to dramatically cheaper prices to try to stymie the global kings. If other industries — from e-commerce to ride-sharing — are any indicators, Spotify and Apple may need to copy from their new rivals to beat them. | 