Opera has a sweet treat for music lovers who use its redesigned desktop web browser: three free months of Spotify Premium. But there’s a catch — and it’s a bitter one for the browser company’s most loyal fanbase.

The offer, which went out last November and includes a sleek upgrade to Opera One’s built-in music player, is only available in select countries. And guess what? None of them are in Africa — Opera Mini’s biggest market.

But first, let’s talk about what’s actually on offer here. Opera has had Spotify baked into its sidebar since November 2024 — just like WhatsApp, Messenger, Slack, and a few AI buddies — but the recent update takes things to a new level. According to ZDNET‘s Jack Wallen, the new in-browser Spotify mini player is slick, compact, and conveniently floaty. You can move it around your screen to wherever your mouse-loving heart desires. It plays, pauses, skips tracks, and even automatically mutes itself when a web page starts playing audio. Smart stuff.

The feature works across Linux, macOS, and Windows.

On top of this, Opera is also handing out two-to-three free months of Spotify Premium for new subscribers. That means no ads, offline listening, and all the music freedom your ears can handle. Sounds amazing, right?

But here’s the kicker. To claim the free trial, users need to be in one of the following countries: Argentina, Brazil, France, Germany, Italy, Poland, Spain, the UK, the US, India, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Thailand, Turkey, or Vietnam.

Notice anything missing? Yeah — the entire African continent. And that’s a head-scratcher, considering Opera Mini’s biggest user base is in Africa. We’re talking over 100 million users globally, with the majority coming from the contintent.

So, what gives?

It gets even more frustrating…

While Spotify appears in my Opera Music Player on Windows 11 alongside Apple Music and Deezer, when I tried opening Spotify from the sidebar — just to test it — the browser kept crashing. Repeatedly. No music, no Premium, just an app that broke Opera entirely. Meanwhile, Apple Music opened just fine. Sure, I don’t have an active subscription so I couldn’t play anything, but at least the app worked — unlike Spotify. And Deezer? Well, it’s not even supported in Kenya.

At this point, the flashy new mini player and the free three months of Spotify Premium start to feel like window dressing — especially if you live in Africa and can’t even get the door to open.

If Opera owes much of its mobile browser’s success to African users, shouldn’t we be the first in line for perks like this? Of course, from a business point of view, the logic might be that Opera is trying to expand its desktop market share in countries where it’s not yet dominant. The offer could be a way to lure users away from browser giants like Chrome or Edge in more saturated markets. But still — it’s not a good look to leave out your biggest fans while wooing potential ones.

There’s no official word yet on whether this Spotify Premium offer will eventually roll out to African countries. The current promotion runs through November 1, 2026 — so there’s plenty of time for Opera to rethink and expand eligibility. Here’s hoping they do.