Boomplay Music reaches new milestone

Speaking during a press conference in Lagos, Nigeria, Boomplay PR head Tosin Sorinola said the company would continue to enhance its user interface to increase music distribution. She also revealed that an iOS version would be made available later in the year.

“This is another major milestone for Boomplay Music and we are more than grateful for the support and involvement of our content providers, users and the team that made it possible to achieve this and sharing the vision of making Boomplay Music the No 1 music app in Africa,” Sorinola said.

Senior East Africa marketing manager Martha Huro said: “Boomplay Music has reached a new high by clocking 10 million installs on Google Play Store. We are one step closer to making a healthy, thriving and functional music distribution future that accommodates the content provider and user’s needs."

Kenyan musician Makadem told Music In Africa that the development was a huge breakthrough for artists such as himself, whose music was not popular on mainstream media.

"Why I like Boomplay is because it parades content from multiple genres, “he said. “Despite that, I suggest that they think about sending yearly reports to all members for more transparency. Before they ventured into the Kenyan market, we had Spinlet. As members we would receive yearly reports. For example, my reports always showed that my music was popular and was being streamed but nobody was buying it.”

However, Ghanaian publicist and blogger Jonathan Nii Laryea, popularly known as Jonilar, said that despite its continental success, the app was yet to penetrate the Ghanaian market

“There is low knowledge on the app among artists here in Ghana,” he said. “We only see adverts on social media. There are no major adverts except for boosted posts. This is one of the reasons why the number of Ghanaian artists on the platform is not that much for audience to troop there.”

Laryea said most African musicians and listeners were yet to fully embrace online platforms.

“We’ve been accessing free songs for years. It’s not easy to go buy a song when you have free alternatives. Most Ghanaian artists and record labels still send songs across for free downloads because of promo purposes, so consumers hardly buy or stream songs. We need a system in place that can prevent people from getting free access,” Laryea said.

Late last year, Boomplay was named Best African App at the AppsAfrica.com Awards, a platform celebrating African technology.