Israel's National Music Streaming App — 600,000 Listeners Strong

An Entire Country's Music Was Being Drowned Out

Israel has one of the most diverse music scenes in the world — folk, rock, Mizrahi, pop, hip-hop, liturgical, Mediterranean. But in the streaming era, none of it surfaced. Global platforms optimized for English. Israeli artists couldn't earn a living. Classic songs weren't digitized. And a generation was growing up without hearing the music that shaped the country.

• -Israeli music was fading out — Decades of songs — folk, rock, Mizrahi, pop, classics that defined the country — were scattered across dying platforms or not digitized at all. Kids growing up on Spotify had no idea these songs existed
• -Artists couldn't make a living — Global streaming pays fractions of a penny per play. For Israeli artists singing in Hebrew to a market of 9 million, that math doesn't work. Careers were ending not because the music was bad, but because the economics were
• -No platform cared about Hebrew music — Spotify and Apple Music optimize for English. Israeli songs were buried under algorithms that don't understand the market. A listener who wanted to find new Israeli artists had nowhere good to look
• -It had to work for everyone — literally everyone — This is a government app. It needed to serve kids, grandparents, tech-savvy twentysomethings, and people who have never downloaded an app before. Full Hebrew RTL, strict security standards, and the kind of simplicity that leaves no one behind

"The Ministry of Culture had a clear goal: build a streaming platform that preserves Israeli music, pays artists properly, and gives every citizen free access. And make it smart enough that people actually want to use it."

600,000 People Now Listen to Israeli Music Because This App Exists

Shiri proved that a small country can build a streaming platform that people prefer over the global alternatives. Not through marketing spend, but because it does something no other app does: it plays Israeli music, it pays the artists, and it's free for everyone.

Key Outcomes:

• -#1 app in Israel, both stores — Shiri passed Spotify, YouTube, and every other streaming app to reach #1 in both Apple and Google Play within days of launch. For a government app, that's unheard of
• -600,000 users — In a country of 9 million, 600,000 people signed up for Shiri. Not because of a marketing blitz, but because it was free, it worked, and it played the music they actually wanted to hear
• -40,000+ songs saved from disappearing — Decades of Israeli music — folk, rock, pop, Mizrahi, classics — digitized, cataloged, and made available to anyone with a phone. A living archive that grows with every new release
• -Artists earn more per stream — Shiri's royalty model pays higher rates than global platforms. Israeli musicians can actually sustain a career making music in Hebrew. Free access for listeners and fair pay for artists, in the same app