Music Streaming Services in Africa You Should Be Using

As an African living in Africa, the search for music streaming services in Africa to make my music experience easier can be a hassle. We Africans have such a rich history and genres of music which may get lost over the course of time. While there aren’t a lot of music streaming services that are solely focused on African music, there’s a good number we can start with. Here at Soot Africa, we’ll take a look at some of the music streaming services available in Africa.

Mkito, the east african music streaming service

This is a gem for East African music. A group of UI/UX designers launched Mkito in 2014. It originally started as a web-based platform and later developed in 2017 into an app. It provides easy and legitimate access to hundreds of archives of East African music. Additionally, it gives about 60% of the revenue generated back to the artists. Now, Mkito is currently East Africa’s largest music distribution platform, with one of the largest catalogues of East African music. It also has about a million users, most of which are based in Africa of course. Users of Mkito get the first 6 months free. After which you can pay $1.5-$3.5 per month for premium subscription.

Since the launch of the app, there has been a steady increase in international users, growing to about 20%. This is just another way in which Mkito is gradually taking African music to the rest of the world. Are you a lover of Bongo Flava, Swahili Rap, and Taarab music?… this is the app for you.

Mdundo, the innovative music streaming service in Africa

This is another one of Africa’s top music streaming platforms, founded in 2012 with its present CEO as Martin Moller Nielsen. Most of the users of Mdundo are from Nigeria, Tanzania, Kenya, or Ghana. The platform can be accessed through their website or the app, offering both free and paid services. What’s interesting about this streaming service is that it even allows the artists to pay for premium subscription at about $1.9 per month. This gives the artist more visibility on the site, allowing them to monetize their music and leading to more revenue generation. The users can also get free plans or paid plans. The paid plans range between $0.034-$1.9 monthly. Additionally, users of the network provider MTN can get daily plans for as low as N20 per day or N50 per week. There’s a plan for everyone.

In an effort to secure music local rights for African catalogues, Mdundo recently saw explosive growth in the number of its users, from 5 million monthly users in June 2022 to about 19 million active users in July 2022. This boost was a result of the new licensing agreement Mdundo reached with Universal Music Group in July 2022. One major benefit of this agreement is making UMG’s catalogue available to Mdundo’s subscribers across Africa. In a press release, Martin Moller explained the importance of providing Africa with an easy and legal solution to accessing and streaming music in Africa that fits the consumers, and I couldn’t agree more. I’ve used Mdundo a couple of times and I have to say: The user experience is so smooth. They’re definitely on to something here.

Boomplay, a popular music streaming service in Africa

I’m sure you must’ve heard of this one. Trassnet Music founded Boomplay in 2015, but it targets mostly African music, although it offers other content. Boomplay offers both free and paid subscriptions. The free subscriptions obviously has its limitations with endless ads, and the likes. To access premium Boomplay, you’d have to pay about $1.4 per month, or it’s naira equivalent of about N500. About 85% of its users are Africans from Nigeria, Kenya, Ghana, and Tanzania. With a whopping 42 million users, Boomplay also provides the opportunity to access and stream legally licensed music in Africa. This is a plus as it further expands the reach of African music.

uduX, the Nigerian music streaming service

This is one of the fastest upcoming music streaming services in Africa that I suggest you keep an eye out for. uduX was founded in 2019 by Nigeria’s own Chidi Okeke and Groove platforms as Nigeria’s first indigenous music streaming service. A game-changing move that uduX made was to obtain a license to stream Wizkid’s Made In Lagos show at the O2 Arena. That, and a mini docuseries of the making of MIL at the O2. As expected, this brought a boom in the number of users. The first 14 days of using uduX is free, after which it offers premium membership for about $1.19 or N500 monthly. Another plus is that it also offers multiple payment platforms. It could be through your local network provider, either MTN or Glo. It could also be through Abeg!, Paystack or directly through your bank, you get to choose.

uduX secured a licensing deal with Universal Music Group in April 2019 and later with Sony Music and Warner Music Group. More recently, uduX and the mobile service provider MTN have gone into a partnership. It entails MTN users getting data at discounted rates in order to access content on the uduX app. This allows uduX users to pay daily at N20 or weekly at N150. If you ask me, uduX is one train we should all be hopping on.

Audiomack Africa

This is an extension of the popular artist-first music streaming platform Audiomack. About three months ago, Audiomack signed a new expansive agreement to make its content available to Audiomack subscribers across Africa. This means a carefully curated selection of UMG content is now accessible for its premium Audiomack users in 16 African countries. This includes Algeria, Morocco, Nigeria, South Africa, and so many others. This, I believe, will help artists connect with their fans both home and abroad, all the while expanding the artists’ audience and helping users discover new music while streaming in Africa. Brilliant. Audiomack offers free plans that are limited with ads and average streaming quality. Premium Audiomack subscription is available for up to N500 monthly in Nigeria, removing all ads and giving you the option to download at high quality.

Of course, these are just a few of the music streaming platforms in Africa that are still upcoming. I believe this is a great time to put our art out there by ourselves, on our own turf. In terms of generating revenue, the larger part of African music generates revenue for streaming platforms that are not owned by Africans. Among those listed above, there are definitely some contenders. Fingers crossed, the numbers will continue to go up while we sit back and let the world come to our platforms to listen to our sound.