Boomplay and Universal Music Group (UMG) have extended their licensing agreement for UMG’s global music catalogue from seven to 47 countries across Africa.
In 2018, UMG became the first major global music company to license music to the service, which has continued to grow its audience reach and influence across Africa in recent years. Boomplay’s catalogue currently stands at more than 50 million tracks and it boasts the largest repertoire of local African content globally, with 50million monthly active users (MAU).
As one of the first entrants in Africa, Boomplay has been at the forefront of the music streaming market since 2015 In December 2020, Boomplay surpassed the 100 million app downloads milestone on Google Play.
During this time, Boomplay has supported numerous African artists, across a variety of projects, including UMG-signed Nigerian singer-songwriter Tiwa Savage. The company also invested in the first-ever documentary film focused on the history of Afrobeats.
Boomplay also gave away 250 million megabytes of data to users free of charge, so they could stream music online during the COVID-19 pandemic. The music streaming platform and UMG East Africa held conferences that brought together industry stakeholders to find ways of growing and supporting the African music community and even committed $1 million to support up-and-coming artists from the continent.
“Since our original deal with UMG, the African music industry has seen exponential growth and made huge strides towards being the next powerhouse that it should be. We’re excited to continue partnering with the UMG team to help promote their African and international artists by bringing their catalogue to even more regions across Africa.” Boomplay’s director of content and strategy, Phil Choi, said.
This agreement UMG says underscores its ongoing commitment to support and grow Africa’s domestic music ecosystems, while also creating new opportunities for Pan-African talent to reach new audiences domestically, regionally and around the world.
Over the past 5 years, UMG has taken a holistic approach to expand operations across the continent, opening new divisions in Nigeria, as well as becoming the first major music company to establish divisions in Kenya, Côte d’Ivoire, Senegal, Cameroon and Morocco alongside UMG’s longstanding operations in South Africa. This presence the company says will continue to grow throughout 2021 and beyond, as it continues to further extend the its ability to support domestic artists on the ground across Africa and globally.
Sipho Dlamini, CEO, Universal Music Group, South Africa and Sub-Saharan Africa, said, “We are delighted to expand our relationship with Boomplay, who over the past few years have shown themselves to be dedicated to providing the best in music to fans across the continent. Through this extended agreement, Boomplay will now help supply improved access to the world’s largest and most diverse music catalogue to their broad user base, as we continue to introduce the best in African and international music to the rapidly growing streaming audience across Africa.”
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