This site uses cookies to improve your experience and deliver personalised advertising. You can opt out at any time or find out more by reading our cookie policy. Spotify dominates the global music industry, with million monthly active users streaming its catalogue of more than 30 million songs. Of the 54 countries on the continent, Spotify is only officially available in five: South Africa, Tunisia, Morocco, Algeria, and Egypt. Boomplay is filling the void and enjoying rapid growth on the continent. Launched in by Chinese tech industry veteran Joe He, the streaming service was first introduced as a pre-installed app on phones produced by Tecno, a Hong Kong-based manufacturer. Due to its focus on music streaming, Boomplay has inevitably been dubbed the "African Spotify", even though it has comfortably outgunned its Swedish rival on the continent. Indeed, many tech companies struggle to cope with a challenging environment, where issues such as rampant piracy, prohibitive data costs and poor internet infrastructure are common. Because of this, most people consider streaming services a luxury. Ekwealor suggests the practice of bundling Boomplay on the affordable phones made by Tecno and its brands gave it an edge.
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Username or Email Address. Remember Me. Spotify launched its Afro Hub in October , as a showcase for the music of sub-Saharan Africa, even though the streaming service is so far only available in South Africa in that part of the world. Music Ally Ltd. Insight Countries Reports Sandbox. News News Jobs. Services Learn Events Insight Audience. Tags: Africa Afro Hub playlists Spotify. Read More: News.
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CNN When Chinese music streaming company Transsnet wanted to break into the lucrative African market, they partnered with parent company, Transsion holdings, the makers of popular phone brands such as Infinix and TECNO to pre-install their Boomplay app on their handsets. Chat with us in Facebook Messenger. Find out what's happening in the world as it unfolds. More Videos Falz: 'Entertainment is becoming one of our biggest exports' By leveraging the popularity of these phones among African users, the company was able to market Boomplay directly to the consumer. Boomplay has become the largest streaming music service in Africa; it has 46 million users on the continent with a catalog of five million videos and songs, according to the company's figures. Moshood Isah, 30, had not heard of Boomplay when he bought his TECNO phone but since discovering the app, he says he has enjoyed exploring the pre-downloaded feature on his phone. Read More. I found the name catchy and was excited to try it out for my music," Isah said.
Have you listened to our playlists on Spotify and Apple Music? You really should. To give you more reason to check them out, we've now updated our official OkayAfrica curator channels on both streaming platforms with a handful of new dynamic playlists to keep you up on all the best new music. Each playlist will be updated monthly and published alongside our editorial lists of the best Nigerian, Ghanaian, East African, and South African songs of the month. These are additions to the our already published playlists like the weekly-updated Songs You Need to Hear This Week and Afrobeats Party , among many others. A-Reece has finally released new music even if it comes a few days later than fans had assumed it would. After dropping a mysterious trailer two weeks ago, fans were convinced A-Reece was teasing his upcoming project Paradise 2 and that the release date was the 10 th of August—a date that appeared on a newspaper in the trailer. It turns out, it's a single. For the first two minutes of the song, Reece raps over Mash's keys and a bassline after a hook in which he's assisted by Ayanda Jiya.
