Universal Music Group becomes first music company to partner with leading African music streaming and download service

Lagos and Santa Monica, November 05, 2018 – Boomplay, Africa’s leading music streaming and download service and Universal Music Group (UMG), the world leader in music-based entertainment today announced the signing of a landmark licensing agreement covering multiple markets within Africa.

UMG is the first major music company to license its catalog to Boomplay, which has quickly established itself as the most popular streaming service in Africa. Under the terms of the multi-year agreement and effective immediately, Boomplay will distribute music from UMG’s world-renowned labels through its streaming and download platform in Nigeria, Ghana, Kenya, Tanzania, Rwanda, Uganda and Zambia. Boomplay currently provides more than two million songs and thousands of music videos to more than 36 million users, with nearly two million new users added each month.

Users will now have access to UMG’s extensive catalog of both local and global recording artists including Eminem, Tekno, Post Malone, Nicki Minaj, Lady Zamar, Lil Wayne, Bob Marley, Brenda Fassie, Wurld, J.Cole, Dr. Tumi, Nasty C, 6lack, Diana Ross, Hugh Masekela, Jon Bellion, Larry Gaaga, Tamia, Maroon 5, Aka & Anatii, TJAN, Jah Prayzah, Nonso Bassey, Mafikizolo, Cina Soul, Ella Mai,and Mr. Eazi.

Earlier this year, UMG announced the launch of Universal Music Nigeria, a new division within Western Africa to provide artists with comprehensive opportunities throughout the region and to provide pan-African talent the best possible launch pad for wider international success. UMG is accelerating the company’s focus on growing the entire African music ecosystem including recorded music, music publishing, production, live events, brand partnerships and merchandising efforts.

In making the announcement, Universal Music Group, Executive Vice-President, Market Development Adam Granite said, “We’re looking forward to working with Boomplay as we provide our African artists a range of creative, marketing and promotional resources to accelerate their careers within this vibrant and growing music market. This agreement will help UMG artists to reach new audiences, whilst boosting the African streaming experience to benefit both music fans, artists and songwriters.”

“This partnership extends our reach and makes our artists’ music accessible to millions of African music lovers,” said Ezegozie Eze Jr., General Manager, Universal Music Nigeria, “We are delighted to be the first global music company to partner with Boomplay and look forward to bringing the extraordinary creativity of our artists to as many Africans users as possible.”

Also commenting, Boomplay’s CEO, Joe He, said that Boomplay will continue to forge partnerships that enriches the digital ecosystem and connects music lovers with their favorite songs anytime and anywhere.

“Boomplay is determined to continue meeting the music passion point of Africans in a legitimate way, especially Boomplay users, and teaming up with a major music company in the global music industry like Universal Music Group, offers yet another significant opportunity for us to do so”, he said.

The Boomplay App, which is currently only available for Android users, is scheduled for release via iOS in the coming weeks. In addition, new Boomplay users will be able to obtain a free one-month subscription when they opt in for a monthly auto-renewable subscription plan.

For more information contact:

For Universal Music Group contact:

James Murtagh-Hopkins / +44 203 932 6822 james.murtagh-hopkins@umusic.com 

For Boomplay Contact:

Tosin Sorinola / +234 8166896617 tosin.sorinola@transsnet.com

About Boomplay

Boomplay is a music streaming and download service owned by Transsnet Music Limited, a joint venture established by Transsion Holdings, a Chinese manufacturer that is currently the number one smartphone company by sales in Africa according to IDC, and NetEase, Inc. (NASDAQ: NTES), a leading internet technology company from China.  Boomplay houses millions of songs and videos, connecting music lovers with their favourite songs anytime, anywhere. Boomplay currently has over 36 million users, out of which, over 10 million are from Google Play store, and the rest from global pre-installation on TECNO, Infinix & itel devices. The service is currently available for Web and Android use.  The app, which won the Best African App at the 2017 Apps Africa Awards, allows its users to stream and download their favourite songs and videos, as well as subscribe to a plan in order to save music for offline play. Over the years, different payment platforms have been introduced and music lovers are able to pay for music via mobile money, bank cards or Boomcoin cards. Boomplay aims to build the largest and most sustainable digital music ecosystem. Find out more here.

About Universal Music Group

Universal Music Group (UMG) is the world leader in music-based entertainment, with a broad array of businesses engaged in recorded music, music publishing, merchandising and audiovisual content in more than 60 countries. Featuring the most comprehensive catalog of recordings and songs across every musical genre, UMG identifies and develops artists and produces and distributes the most critically acclaimed and commercially successful music in the world. Committed to artistry, innovation and entrepreneurship, UMG fosters the development of services, platforms and business models in order to broaden artistic and commercial opportunities for our artists and create new experiences for fans. Universal Music Group is a Vivendi company. Find out more here.

Want to meet Africa’s answer to Drake and Cardi B, or hear what’s big on the streets of Lagos or Nairobi? There’s only one place to go: Boomplay.

In a dozen markets across West and East Africa, music is spreading like wildfire, legally and accountably, thanks to the wildly popular, fast-growing music download and streaming platform (currently available in Android and web versions). Bringing fully licensed downloads and streams to millions of users in major markets like Nigeria, Kenya, Tanzania, and Ghana, Boomplay demonstrates what can happen when skilled tech players and strong teams with deep regional knowhow band together to make beautiful music.

Boomplay is the first service in the region to offer artists and rights holders analytics and transparency via an artist portal, shining a bright light into traditionally shadier corners of the music business. It offers music and celebrity news content, videos, and addictive curated playlists designed passionately for African music fans, highlighting the region’s best performers. It also includes robust social features (comments, likes, user generated playlists).

“On Boomplay, you can download directly to your device,” explains ‘Tosin Sorinola, Boomplay’s global head of public relations. “You can also save tracks for offline play as a subscriber and stream without ads. Because people also like to own the music in this part of the world, we’re still seeing a number of outright purchase of music, about 1 download for every 100 streams, though that is shifting.

The history of Boomplay is highly unusual among apps. The service started out as pre installed software on TECNO phones in 2015. Users of other hardware wanted it, too, so the company put a version on Google Play (with an iOS version on its way by the end of 2018). “We quickly became the first music app from Africa to get 1 million downloads on Google Play in early 2017,” says Boomplay CEO, Joe He. The app went on to dominate the space, reaching 10 million downloads in mid-2018. By that time, Boomplay had more than 30 million active users and seems set to break the 40 million mark by year’s end.

The success was built on a friendly team that united Chinese investors and executives and African curators, music industry experts, and tech whizzes. Joe kicked off his career with the Transsion group (the holding company of TECNO) as the Business Development Manager of the Operator and Mobile Internet Department before moving on to start Boomplay, owning from his interest in digital music. He had always been captivated about music especially lyrics, but got deep into Africa’s musical styles thanks to Oye Akideinde, Boomplay’s West Africa Director, and other African colleagues.

“Boomplay has family-like bonding and relationships. It’s more than just colleagues, ”Joe reflects. “Running a startup like Boomplay is like charting the unknown possibilities. And I have always told people I interviewed that it’s genuinely a cool thing to do music in any part of the world, but it’s a special pleasure to work where people are so devoted to music. Putting the challenges aside, the journey itself is cool enough.”

The journey has taken Boomplay out of its original market and into new countries, all with their own scenes and sounds. Navigating new markets means listening carefully to what local users want. “When we start to work in a new place, we open up the channels of communication,” notes Sorinola. “We work a lot with feedback from users and depend on them to let us know what they want. We usually take a cue from that to create what they need. We study what is trending.”

What is trending often defies national borders, as African artists find new audiences in new countries “We notice trends like that all the time. Based on the fact, we have a robust back end and can see a lot of data. We can trace everything and see an artist, a Ghanaian artist who is big in Tanzania, say, and then advise the artist or aggregator about the new uptick in interest on the platform.” Boomplay has played a notable role in facilitating this growing connection between once-fragmented musical worlds.

Overall, the platform has been at the epicenter of a growing interest in African music and in Africans’ insistence on consuming, managing, and creating music on their own terms. “The interest in homegrown music has significantly risen as local music is now more consumed in Africa,” says Joe. “There’s a lot more focus on Africa thanks to this. It’s also exciting to see many African artists breaking into the global music scene and getting widely accepted and recognized. The increase of interest in the music business is also worthy of mention. The industry is getting better structured with the rise of African music business professionals.”