Today we would be doing a review of one of the most popular music streaming apps in Africa, Boomplay.
Music is a huge part of a lot of people’s lives today. While this has certainly been the case for centuries, how we access the same today has changed. We have gone from people having to listen to music only at live concerts and musicals, to getting gramophones, then came vinyl, cassettes, CDs and MP3 players.
The smartphone along with the internet are arguably two of the 21st century’s most influential inventions. They have affected just about every industry and entertainment isn’t left out. These days, one of the major means of listening to the latest (and even old) songs is through streaming services. Streaming services are like music players but they run using an internet connection. What this means, is less storage space is required on your device as it plays songs directly from the internet.
While services such as Spotify and iTunes make are more popular globally, one audio streaming service that has been gathering steam and growing, especially in Africa is Boomplay.
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What is Boomplay?
Boomplay is a music streaming service available on Android, iOS and web devices. The service has a catalogue of more than 42 million songs and counting. This means that most songs you might be looking for are available on the platform.
The app covers a wide genre of songs; RnB, Soul, Old School, Rap, Gospel and so on. Also, there’s a rich assortment of African and Foreign artists on the app and all songs are systematically arranged according to the metadata available.
The app mixes music streaming with social functionality using its Buzz feature, which allows users and artists to make posts.
The app is also a good way to keep up with your favourite artists as you can get notifications on new songs or albums they released by simply following them within the app.
About Boomplay
Boomplay was launched in 2015 by Transsnet Group (a joint venture between NetEase Group, a Chinese Internet company, and Transsion Holdings Group, the producers of popular smartphone brand—Tecno). When the app initially launched, it was known as Boom Player and was exclusively preinstalled on Tecno devices. The first device the app was run on was Tecno’s first ‘music phone’, Boom J7.
The continued pre-installation of the app on newer Tecno devices led to users of the smartphones getting access to the app, and since Tecno at the time was holding almost half of the low-end smartphone market share, this meant that they were penetrating a ready-made market.
By April 2016, the app was ready for free download on the Google Play Store. It took the app only nine months to cross the one million-download mark. Not long after that, there was a rebranding of the app to Boomplay. A new logo and user interface were also introduced. It was at this point that the “buzz” and “follow” features were also added to the app. Today, Boomplay has over 50 million downloads on Google Play and an average rating of 4.4 stars.
Boomplay was made available on the Apple App Store in December 2018. You can also access the app via their web service.
Boomplay currently has about 5 million music tracks. There are 42 million monthly active users with an addition of around 2 million users each month.
An Afrocentric music app
While Boomplay might not have been developed or distributed by an African company or Africans, it’s impossible not to notice the Afro-centric nature of Transsnet’s operations. Of the app’s users, 85 per cent are on the African continent (primarily Nigeria, Ghana, Kenya and Tanzania).
It’s not hard to see why this is the case, the app was first launched in Nigeria in 2015. In August 2016, the Kenya office was opened and an operations team was put in place to build the foundation of the business in the region. In April 2017, another office was opened in Tanzania and subsequently—in 2018— another one was opened in Ghana. Till date, Boomplay has no overseas offices.
From the onset, Boomplay has made its focus to be on local African music and have maintained this status. This African core has made the app hugely popular not just with those who stay within Africa but even Africans in the diaspora, who might have a harder time getting access to locally made music.
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The growth of Boomplay in Africa comes at a time when music streaming services were only beginning to gain popularity in the region. Global big players like Apple Music and Spotify have not really broken into the African content.
They clearly have their eyes set on other markets; Spotify only launched its first service in South Africa in March 2018 and has yet to expand to more countries. Apple’s big hindrance has been its pricing, which is not friendly to inhabitants of the less developed continent.
Deals with Universal Music Group and TuneCore— one of the leading distributors for indie music in the world— increased the catalogue of songs available on the platform.
Boomplay features
Boomplay music
Boomplay is majorly a music streaming service and this has been the focus since its inception in 2015. On the app, users can get access to songs, which are sorted in order of charts, artists, albums and year.
On the app, the Trending tab displays the current most popular songs. Users can also search for the songs they desire in the search bar at the top of the screen. Music and videos can be streamed for free on the app without users signing in, for users to download the songs for offline listening, signing-in is required.
The music player on the app has a lyric player that syncs the lyrics of the song as it’s being played. Song lyrics are available for upload and correction by registered users.
With Charts, you can check out the most-played 100 songs in your region and globally every week.
On the app, there are official Boomplay playlists and users can create theirs too, and make it public.
The video catalogue of Boomplay is, however, light on content.
Boompla buzz
The Buzz feature is a social feature on the app. On the platform, users can make posts ranging from articles, images, music, polls and so on. It also affords users the option of commenting on other posts and following one another. Users can see the playlists and posts of those they follow, as well as sending direct messages to one another.
Within Buzz, hashtags are used to keep tabs on topics. The trending topics are usually under the “Hot Hashtags” pane.
Buzz feels like a whole world of its own as you would find posts on a variety of topics, ranging from entertainment to sports and even serious news events.
Boomplay media player
Apart from Boomplay being a music streaming app, it can also be used to play already existing media on phones. It can play video and audio formats seamlessly.
