It was Shamoon Ismail who first confirmed that Spotify - the global streaming app that is home to more than 60 million songs, hundreds of artists and scores of podcasts from around the world – is coming to Pakistan.

One source can be conjecture. Three, however, is a different story. Shamoon was followed by Meesha Shafi, who confirmed to Instep during an interview that it is coming. “Spotify is officially coming to Pakistan,” she said. And, just recently, Pakistani music’s redefining artist Abdullah Siddiqui confirmed the same. “Spotify is coming to Pakistan.”

Spotify already hosts the music of dozens of Pakistani artists but the app, so far, states it is “unavailable to your country” when you go to the website. There is no official information from Spotify that may suggest otherwise, however verified accounts have emerged on Instagram as well as Facebook that suggest that the status may be about to change.

Will it break the monopoly?

Patari currently has the lion’s share of Pakistani music. It has grown over the years but it has also grown into becoming a monopoly, which is a problem. Patari suffered a dent in its reputation when CEO Khalid Bajwa was replaced upon reports of lewd behavior; its reputation continued to suffer when reports of non-payment to artists surfaced.

Some artists have pulled their music from Patari altogether. One such artist is singer-songwriter and producer Ali Suhail, who has pulled all of his solo albums from the streaming site. Lack of payments on Patari’s end after an initial payout was reportedly the problem.

Despite the irregularities, many artists have opted to stay with Patari and the bigger question is, why? Why do artists continue to work with the local streaming app with its compromised reputation?

Answer: Because alternatives are not available, especially for emerging artists. Artists can upload music but to get people to listen is another science altogether; the homegrown Patari is perhaps the only choice.

Should Spotify enter the market, it will be interesting to see how artists, consumers and Pakistan’s largest streaming site deals with it.

Music, currently going through a transitional phase in Pakistan, will finally have an alternative revenue-streaming model that has made Spotify such a global force across the world. It will not solve financial issues completely, since Spotify has been under-fire for not paying as much as it should. However, Pakistan’s musical ecosystem operates in its own unique ways and thus Spotify’s entry into Pakistan’s music market could turn out to be a fortunate thing.

How early this will happen remains a mystery but given the exuberant confidence with which artists have confirmed its arrival, it feels more concrete than sheer speculation and mere conjecture.