Image Source: Boomplay

African Music Bops Help Boomplay Raise $20 Million

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By CultureBanx Team

  • Africa’s Boomplay raised a $20M Series A round
  • Boomplay reaches 44 million active users

Boomplay, Africa’s top streaming platform owned by Transsion has just closed a $20 million Series A funding round, for content acquisition, recruitment and product optimization. Music across the continent is widely fragmented but remains one of the last true growth opportunities in the world. This begs the question: is Boomplay’s long term play to get acquired by streaming giants like Spotify (SPOT -0.28%) or Apple Music (AAPL -0.36%)?

Boomplay Music.jpg

Why This Matters: The success of streaming has attracted lots of new investment and longtime owners have seen an opportunity to cash out. Much of Boomplay’s growth is due to the streaming service coming pre-installed on Transsion smartphones, which are the best selling ones in the continent. This strategy has allowed Boomplay to quickly reach 44 million active users. By comparison Spotify and Apple music have 200 million and 56 million active users.

Reports of Boomplay’s funding round comes after it recently agreed licensing deals with Universal Music Group (UMG) and Warner Music. They have been aggressively expanding their catalog to allow users access a vast library of music from international artists and to stymie the advantage held by Spotify and Apple Music. Revenues for UMG during the first half of 2018 amounted to more than $3 billion, led by a 34.3% spike in streaming revenues.

Boomplay’s head of international content acquisition pointed out that there aren’t any big labels in Africa that Spotify And Apple could easily tap into for a strong catalog of music

The company’s head of international content acquisition pointed out that there aren’t any big labels in Africa that Spotify And Apple could easily tap into for a strong catalog of music. Instead these streaming platforms would have to work out deals with a plethora of independent artists, or perhaps just acquire Boomplay.

Situational Awareness: More than half of the world’s population growth will be in Africa by 2050, according to the United Nations. Not to mention more than 60% of people in the continent are under 25 years old, and heavily rely on mobile phones to do everything. This is why last November Spotify launched in North Africa and Apple Music is accessible in a few countries across the continent as well.

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