Inside Africa’s Boomplay Licensing Deal With Warner Music

Vanessa Obioha

The new licensing deal between Boomplay and Warner Music will see the music streaming and download service in Africa distribute Warner Music’s extensive catalogue of more than one million songs to its listeners in 10 African countries.

While that figure is a small fraction of the continent’s population, Boomplay aims at bringing the record company’s diverse global roster of music to the African region while providing Warner Music’s artists with direct access and exposure to Boomplay’s millions of users in the region.

The countries include Cameroon, Côte d’Ivoire, Ghana, Kenya, Nigeria, Rwanda, Senegal, Tanzania, Uganda and Zambia.

Currently, Boomplay has more than 42 million users who utilises its expansive library of five million songs and thousands of videos from local and international acts. With this new deal, the streaming service is inching closer to its goal of bringing all music from around the world to Africa.

“Major deals with internationally recognized partners such as Warner Music continue to push us closer to our aim of building the largest and the most reliable online music distribution platform in Africa. We want every music lover in the region to be able to access any song or video, anytime and wherever they are.

“We are looking forward to a successful partnership and business continuation with WMG in what are truly exciting times for the African Music Industry,” said Joe He, CEO of Boomplay.

Alfonso Perez Soto, EVP, Eastern Europe, Middle East and Africa, Warner Music, added that the deal is an opportunity for their artistes to make “a whole new legion of fans.”
In the past year, Boomplay has been on the crest of a wave, announcing landmark deals with global major labels, acquiring millions of new users monthly and releasing an iOS version in December 2018.

With major labels coming on board, Boomplay is now in a strong position to further improve its service offerings and defend its leading position in Africa.

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