Kenya: Songa announces cheaper tariff

From its inception in February, the Safaricom-owned streaming service has continued to contextualise its service according to market realities.

Songa is yet to gain ground among Safaricom's 30 million customer base, but it has made significant inroads in a short time.

Songa also said it had committed to a new direction aimed at empowering Kenyan artists, with the bulk of marketing efforts now focusing on promoting and uplifting local musical works.

The new Gold Package reduces the cost of subscription to 5 Kenyan shillings ($5 cents) a day. Users of the package will have access to all local, African and selected international content on the music platform.

Songa said subscribers would get access to more than 2 million tracks and have the option to either stream or download music, which can then be played without using up data.

Kenya is a ripe market for subscription-based services such as Songa. At 83% it has the highest cellphone Internet traffic in the world, according to a 2018 Jumia report.

This is largely attributed to the proliferation of smartphones with mobile subscriptions estimated at 41 million in a population of 44 million.

Safaricom controls the lion's share of mobile subscriptions in Kenya, which gives Songa an added advantage. But despite high Internet penetration and the second-fastest internet speed in Africa, costs remain a major hindrance in the uptake of the service.

The price drop is now expected to increase penetration, especially in low-income earners in a country where 42% of people live below the poverty line.

The complete subscription pricing for the Songa service is as follows:

• Gold Package Daily. Ksh 5 (local, African and selected international)
• Premium Package Daily. Ksh 25 (local, African and all international)