Deezer launches Dance Africa playlists

The launch coincides with International Dance Day happening on 29 April. The playlists can be accessed here. They include music from 22 artists across the continent such as South Africa’s Master KG, Kamo Mphela, Makhadzi and De Mthuda, as well as Nigeria’s WurlD and Toofan, among others, who each share their top songs.

“Dance plays an important role in African culture and is woven into our daily lives,” Deezer music editor for Africa Sotiris Moldovanos said. “We wanted to showcase the rich diversity of sounds across the continent with our Dance Africa playlist. For the first time, music fans will be able to party hop from South Africa to the Ivory Coast – all within the comfort of their home.”

WurlD said: “Dance is a way of expressing how you feel when the music hits you the right way. You don’t have to be great at dance to express yourself. The freedom we feel when I dance is beyond words, a sweet escape.”

International Dance Day aims to encourage participation and education in dance through events and festivals held on this date around the globe. It also seeks to celebrate dance and cross all political, cultural and ethnic barriers using the common language of dance. The date was selected to honour the birthday of Jean-Georges Noverre, who is known as the creator of modern ballet.

The move adds to Deezer’s recent efforts to bolster its platform. Last week, the company made available its podcast tab to users across Africa, Asia and Oceania. The feature also offers podcast recommendations, and the company claims it is the only streaming service to offer the format by duration, enabling users to choose from 10, 20, 30 or 40-minute podcasts. Deezer says consumption of the spoken-word format has exploded on its platform, with a sevenfold increase in monthly podcast users since 2017.

Additionally, the music app now comes pre-installed on a new pair of Mobee K USB-C earbuds, which can be used with Samsung devices from 2019 or newer models. Users do not have to install Deezer from the Google Play Store and the move gives them more alternatives. Deezer's rival, Spotify, has been a default music streaming service on Samsung devices through a partnership with the electronics manufacturer.

Meanwhile, Deezer recently criticised Spotify for raising its subscription prices in some countries around the globe. In a statement sent to journalists, chief commercial officer Laurence Miall d’Aout said: “We just wanted to let you know that Deezer isn’t going to raise prices in the middle of the pandemic. Music, podcasts and radio help people cope and we don’t feel this is the time to make things harder for them. If we ever were to increase prices, we would give our users a three-month heads up to make sure that it doesn’t come as a surprise.”