MDLBEAST Records: 200M+ Streams Building the Sound of Saudi Arabia

When MDLBEAST Records released its inaugural single — “Ringtone” by Dutch-Moroccan DJ R3HAB from the Soundstorm Volume 1 album — it announced an ambition that went far beyond launching a regional record label. Based in Jeddah, MDLBEAST Records was designed from its inception as a bridge between the Middle East’s untapped musical talent and the global streaming ecosystem. Within its first two years of operation, the label surpassed 200 million streams, collaborated with 110 artists from Saudi Arabia, the MENA region, and international markets, and released a catalog of 159 singles, 4 albums, and 9 EPs that collectively defined an emerging sonic identity for Saudi music.

Those numbers represent a commercial achievement, but they also represent something more fundamental: proof that Saudi Arabia can produce, distribute, and monetize original music at a scale that commands global attention. In a market where Saudi artist royalties on Spotify alone reached $3.5 million in 2024 — a 76 percent year-over-year increase — MDLBEAST Records has positioned itself as the infrastructure through which much of that growth flows.

The Label’s Architecture: More Than a Roster

MDLBEAST Records operates as one division of the broader MDLBEAST entertainment company, which was co-founded in 2019 by CEO Ramadan Alharatani and COO Talal Albahiti. While the Soundstorm Festival is MDLBEAST’s most visible product, the record label represents the company’s long-term investment in Saudi Arabia’s creative economy. Festivals are annual events; a record label’s output is continuous.

The label’s operational model differs significantly from traditional Western record labels. Rather than signing artists to exclusive long-term contracts and controlling their output, MDLBEAST Records functions more as a collaborative platform. It releases, distributes, and amplifies talent — the language is deliberate. Artists work with the label on specific projects, benefiting from MDLBEAST’s distribution infrastructure, marketing reach, and festival platform (Soundstorm and XP Music Futures provide direct audience exposure) while maintaining creative independence.

This model reflects the realities of the Saudi and MENA music market. The regional industry is young — Saudi Arabia’s public entertainment sector effectively did not exist before Vision 2030 — and the talent pipeline is still developing. An overly restrictive label model would discourage emerging artists from engaging with formal industry structures. MDLBEAST’s approach lowers the barrier to entry while providing the infrastructure that individual artists cannot build on their own.

The Catalog: 159 Singles, 4 Albums, 9 EPs

MDLBEAST Records’ release volume is remarkable for a label that has been operating for less than five years. The 159 singles, 4 albums, and 9 EPs span electronic, EDM, deep house, techno, Afrobeat, and hybrid genres that blend Arabic musical traditions with contemporary production techniques.

The electronic and dance music emphasis reflects MDLBEAST’s DNA as a company founded by DJs and electronic music enthusiasts. Chief Creative Officer Ahmad “Baloo” Alammary has been playing music in Saudi Arabia and the wider MENA region for decades, and his aesthetic sensibility permeates the label’s sonic identity. But the catalog is broader than pure EDM. MDLBEAST Records has released tracks that incorporate traditional Arabic instrumentation, hip-hop rhythms, and pop songwriting structures, reflecting the genre fluidity that characterizes contemporary Saudi music consumption.

The label’s plans for expansion include a series of sub-labels focused on specific sonic niches — underground deep house and techno, mainstream EDM, and Afrobeat among them. This sub-label strategy mirrors the approach taken by successful international labels like Defected (which operates sub-labels for different house music subgenres) and allows MDLBEAST Records to maintain curatorial coherence within each niche while expanding its overall catalog breadth.

The Artist Roster: 30+ Saudi, 43 Regional, 37 International

The diversity of MDLBEAST Records’ artist roster tells the story of a label building connections in three concentric circles: Saudi Arabia, the MENA region, and the global market.

Saudi Artists (30+): The core of the roster. These are the artists who represent the label’s primary mission — developing and amplifying Saudi talent. Key signed artists include:

• Cosmicat (Nouf Sufyani): The first female DJ from Saudi Arabia. Cosmicat’s signing to MDLBEAST Records was a cultural milestone — a Saudi woman performing and releasing electronic music on a professional label in a country where women’s participation in public entertainment has only recently become normalized. Her viral TikTok presence, with track teasers reaching millions of views, has made her one of the most visible faces of Saudi music’s new generation.

• Dabous: A Saudi electronic artist whose production style incorporates elements of traditional Arabic music into contemporary dance frameworks. Dabous represents the label’s interest in artists who are not simply replicating Western electronic music but creating something distinctly rooted in Saudi sonic traditions.

• BluePaper: Based in Riyadh, BluePaper is an electronic producer whose work spans ambient, downtempo, and club-oriented styles. His Riyadh roots connect the label to the capital city’s emerging producer community.

• Kayan: A versatile Saudi artist whose work crosses genre boundaries, reflecting the label’s interest in artists who resist easy categorization.

Regional MENA Artists (43): The second circle. Artists from Bahrain, Tunisia, Kuwait, Lebanon, and other MENA countries who benefit from MDLBEAST Records’ distribution network and festival platform. Notable signings include ZONE+ from Bahrain, and artists like Moontalk, Vinylmode, Moayad, JEME, NarKBeat, and Hrag Mikkel, whose origins span the broader Middle Eastern electronic music scene.

International Collaborators (37): The third circle. Artists like R3HAB, Salvatore Ganacci, BUTCH, Afrojack, Anton Powers, Amine K and Yahya, and Dish Dash who have released tracks through or in collaboration with MDLBEAST Records. These international partnerships serve a dual function: they bring global production expertise and audience reach to the label, and they signal to the international music industry that MDLBEAST Records is a credible partner for cross-border collaboration.

The 200 Million Stream Milestone

Surpassing 200 million streams within two years of operation placed MDLBEAST Records in territory that few independent labels — let alone labels from emerging markets — reach so quickly. The milestone was driven by several factors operating simultaneously.

First, the Soundstorm Festival provides an unparalleled promotional platform. When a MDLBEAST Records artist performs at Soundstorm to an audience of 700,000, the streaming impact is immediate and measurable. Festival exposure drives discovery — attendees Shazam tracks during sets, search for artists on Spotify and Apple Music afterward, and share content on social media that drives further discovery among their networks.

Second, the label benefits from the broader growth of music streaming in Saudi Arabia and the MENA region. Saudi music consumption on Spotify grew by 195 percent between 2020 and 2024. First-time listener discoveries of Saudi artists reached 220 million in 2024 alone, a 75 percent year-over-year increase. MDLBEAST Records’ catalog rides this rising tide, capturing attention from an audience that is actively seeking new music.

Third, the international collaborations bring established fanbases to the label’s catalog. When R3HAB releases a single through MDLBEAST Records, his existing global audience of millions discovers the label and its other artists. This cross-pollination strategy accelerates catalog discovery in a way that purely organic growth from unknown artists could never achieve.

Fourth, the label’s presence on TikTok — where several of its artists, particularly Cosmicat, have built significant followings — drives streaming through the viral discovery mechanisms that now dominate music consumption among listeners under 30. TikTok has become the primary discovery platform for Saudi musicians, with viral clips leading directly to record deals and streaming growth.

Music Rights and Revenue Infrastructure

MDLBEAST Records’ partnership with Esmaa, the music rights licensing company, ensures that composers and rights holders are properly compensated for music performed at MDLBEAST events. This partnership is significant because it establishes professional rights management standards in a market where intellectual property enforcement has historically been inconsistent.

The partnership with Telfaz11, a Saudi media production company, extends MDLBEAST Records’ revenue streams beyond streaming and live performance into synchronization licensing — the use of music in film, television, and other media productions. This revenue diversification strategy mirrors the approach taken by successful independent labels globally and reduces the label’s dependence on any single revenue source.

The Saudi Authority for Intellectual Property (SAIP) provides the legal framework for copyright protection, and MDLBEAST Records’ formal engagement with rights management structures positions it as a model for how Saudi music businesses should operate. As the market matures and more Saudi artists generate meaningful revenue, the infrastructure that MDLBEAST Records has helped establish will benefit the entire ecosystem.

The XP Music Futures Connection

MDLBEAST Records is deeply integrated with XP Music Futures, the annual industry conference organized by MDLBEAST. The 2024 edition, held December 5-7 at JAX District in Diriyah, drew 5,130 attendees across 121 daytime sessions and featured 380 speakers. The conference theme, “Flourish,” reflected MDLBEAST’s assessment that the Saudi music industry had moved beyond its emergence phase and was entering a period of sustained growth.

For MDLBEAST Records specifically, XP Music Futures serves as a talent discovery and development platform through several initiatives:

XPerform: An emerging talent platform that gives regional acts the opportunity to perform and work directly with MDLBEAST Records. This is the label’s primary talent pipeline — artists who demonstrate their potential through XPerform sets can move into more formal collaborations with the label.

XChange: Curated workshops held in cities across the region (Kuwait, Tunisia, and Riyadh) in advance of the conference. These workshops extend the label’s talent network beyond Saudi Arabia and create relationships with artists who may eventually release music through MDLBEAST Records.

HUNNA: A women-led initiative to amplify female talent from the MENA region. Given the significance of Cosmicat’s breakthrough as the first Saudi female DJ, HUNNA represents MDLBEAST’s commitment to ensuring that the female talent pipeline continues to expand.

Sound Futures: A pitch platform where musicians and innovators can present their work to potential funders and mentors. This is effectively a music-industry version of a startup accelerator, providing the capital and guidance that early-stage artists need to develop their careers.

The Sub-Label Strategy

MDLBEAST Records’ announced plans for sub-labels represent the next phase of the label’s evolution. By creating distinct imprints for underground deep house and techno, mainstream EDM, and Afrobeat, the label can serve audiences with specific genre preferences while maintaining a coherent brand identity at the parent level.

This strategy also allows the label to sign and develop artists who might not fit the MDLBEAST Records brand in its current, relatively broad configuration. An underground techno producer, for example, might resist association with a label that also releases mainstream EDM — the genre politics of electronic music are notoriously tribal. A dedicated techno sub-label provides a home for that artist without compromising the sub-label’s credibility within its niche.

The Afrobeat sub-label is particularly interesting because it reflects the growing influence of African music in the MENA region and globally. Afrobeats (the contemporary genre, distinct from Fela Kuti’s original Afrobeat) has become one of the fastest-growing genres on global streaming platforms, and MDLBEAST Records’ entry into this space positions it to capitalize on cross-pollination between African and Middle Eastern musical traditions.

Saudi Arabia’s Streaming Ecosystem

MDLBEAST Records operates within a streaming ecosystem that is experiencing explosive growth. The key metrics from Spotify’s first standalone Saudi Arabia report paint a picture of a market in rapid ascent:

• Saudi artist royalties reached $3.5 million (SAR 13 million+) in 2024, a 76 percent year-over-year increase
• First-time listener discoveries of Saudi artists hit 220 million+, up 75 percent year-over-year
• More than 90 percent of Saudi artist royalties came from international listeners
• Saudi music consumption on Spotify grew 195 percent since 2020
• The number of Saudi artists earning SAR 100,000 or more annually on Spotify doubled since 2023

These numbers reveal a market where the audience is growing faster than the supply of professionally produced content — an ideal environment for a label with MDLBEAST Records’ infrastructure and catalog depth.

Beyond Spotify, the Saudi streaming ecosystem includes Anghami (the MENA-native platform with 1.7 million+ paid subscribers), Apple Music, Deezer, and YouTube. The IFPI’s launch of official music charts for Saudi Arabia — incorporating data from Anghami, Apple Music, Deezer, Spotify, and YouTube — further formalized the market and provided MDLBEAST Records with additional visibility for its releases.

The label’s presence across multiple platforms, including TikTok for discovery and SoundCloud for underground and experimental releases, ensures that its catalog reaches listeners regardless of their preferred platform.

International Market Penetration

One of MDLBEAST Records’ most significant achievements is the international reach of its catalog. The fact that more than 90 percent of Saudi artist royalties on Spotify come from international listeners indicates that the label’s music is finding audiences far beyond Saudi Arabia and the MENA region.

The top international markets for Saudi music on Spotify — the United States, Brazil, India, Germany, the United Kingdom, and France — represent a remarkably diverse geographic spread. This diversity suggests that Saudi electronic and dance music is finding audiences through algorithmic discovery and playlist placement rather than through pre-existing cultural connections with specific countries.

MDLBEAST Records’ international collaborations with artists like R3HAB, Afrojack, and Salvatore Ganacci have played a role in this penetration by introducing the label’s catalog to established international fanbases. But the organic discovery metrics — 220 million first-time listener discoveries in 2024 — indicate that the music itself is finding global audiences on its own merits.

Arabic is now one of the fastest-growing languages on Spotify, and MDLBEAST Records is positioned to benefit from this trend as the platform’s algorithms increasingly recommend Arabic-language and Arabic-influenced music to listeners whose consumption patterns indicate openness to non-English content.

The Competitive Landscape

MDLBEAST Records does not operate in a vacuum. The broader MENA music industry includes established labels and distributors, and international majors (Universal, Sony, Warner) have increased their presence in the region as the market’s growth potential has become apparent.

However, MDLBEAST Records possesses several competitive advantages that are difficult to replicate. Its integration with the Soundstorm Festival — the region’s largest live music event — provides a promotional platform that no competitor can match. Its position within the broader MDLBEAST ecosystem, which includes radio broadcasting, editorial coverage (XP Feed), and a private members club (Beast House), creates multiple touchpoints with audiences. And its deep relationships with Saudi and MENA artists, built through years of community engagement and talent development, give it credibility that international labels entering the market from the outside cannot easily establish.

The label’s challenge going forward is to maintain its growth trajectory as the market matures and competition intensifies. The sub-label strategy, the continued development of Saudi talent, and the expansion of international partnerships all point to a label that is planning for long-term sustainability rather than relying on the novelty factor that has driven its early success.

What MDLBEAST Records Means for the Saudi Music Industry

MDLBEAST Records has demonstrated that a Saudi-based record label can achieve global streaming scale, develop homegrown talent, and build professional industry infrastructure in a market where none existed a decade ago. Its 200 million+ streams, 110 artist collaborations, and growing catalog represent tangible proof that the Saudi music industry is not merely a government-funded vanity project but a commercially viable creative economy.

The label’s impact extends beyond its own financial performance. By establishing professional standards for rights management, revenue distribution, and artist development, MDLBEAST Records has created a template that other Saudi and MENA labels can follow. By demonstrating that Saudi electronic music can find audiences in the United States, Brazil, India, and Europe, it has validated the commercial potential of the entire market.

For the artists on its roster — from Cosmicat making history as Saudi Arabia’s first female DJ to BluePaper producing ambient electronic music in a Riyadh studio — MDLBEAST Records provides something that was simply unavailable five years ago: a professional platform for releasing music, building an audience, and earning a living from their art in Saudi Arabia. That infrastructure is the foundation upon which the Kingdom’s entire music industry will be built.

The 200 million stream milestone was a beginning, not a destination. As the Saudi music market continues its exponential growth, MDLBEAST Records is positioned to capture a significant share of a pie that is expanding faster than anyone predicted.