{"id":119770,"date":"2024-12-12T12:11:00","date_gmt":"2024-12-12T17:11:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.cyberlego.com\/web\/2024\/12\/12\/how-audiomack-became-a-streaming-power-player-in-africa-3\/"},"modified":"2024-12-12T12:11:00","modified_gmt":"2024-12-12T17:11:00","slug":"how-audiomack-became-a-streaming-power-player-in-africa-3","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.cyberlego.com\/web\/2024\/12\/12\/how-audiomack-became-a-streaming-power-player-in-africa-3\/","title":{"rendered":"How Audiomack Became a Streaming Power Player in\u00a0Africa"},"content":{"rendered":"

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\n\tWhile Afrobeats has been hailed as Africa\u2019s biggest cultural export, its growth on the continent is also cause for celebration.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe 2023<\/a> and 2024<\/a> IFPI Global Reports revealed Sub-Saharan Africa was the fastest-growing region in the world, with this year\u2019s report documenting a 25% rise in music sales largely driven by increased adoption of paid subscription services (up by just under a quarter). And no other streaming service has been as innovative and effective at expanding their reach on the continent as Audiomack.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tThe company has been applauded for bolstering artists with user-friendly promotional and analytics tools while providing fans with a solid discovery experience, and its unparalleled work in Africa has been critical in the rise of Afrobeats and other genres on the continent. Audiomack opened its first African office in Lagos, Nigeria<\/a> in 2020 and made three key hires, including Charlotte Bwana<\/strong>, who officially joined the company as head of media and brand partnerships and has since risen to vp of marketing, EU, Africa & MENA.\u00a0<\/p>\n

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\t\t\t\t\tGamma Strikes Strategic Partnerships in Africa and the Middle\u00a0East\t\t<\/p>\n<\/h3><\/div>\n

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\n\tBwana had been living in Nigeria at the time and working in Audiomack\u2019s ambassador program, where she met with and onboarded artists onto the platform and continued expanding its Afrobeats division through social media marketing, idea generation, playlist curation and outreach to major labels, artist managers, booking agents and more. Once travel was allowed after the pandemic, Bwana \u201cliterally backpacked across Africa \u2013 Nigeria, Ghana, Tanzania, South Africa \u2013 doing Audiomack masterclasses, meeting artists and teaching them Audiomack one-on-one but also about the entertainment business,\u201d she tells Billboard<\/em>. \u201cSomebody said to me, \u2018A lot of companies are companies in the cloud, but you are a company that exists, we can actually meet you and shake your hand and call you on the phone. The difference between you and many other streaming companies is your availability.\u2019\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tBwana emphasizes that that \u201chuman touch\u201d element has significantly helped scale Audiomack, which is the No. 1 music streaming app on Apple\u2019s App Store in 22 African countries \u2014 including Ghana, Nigeria, Rwanda, Tanzania and Zimbabwe \u2014 and the No. 1 music streaming app on the Google Play Store in Gambia, Ghana, Liberia, Nigeria and Sierra Leone. According to the company, in Nigeria alone Audiomack boasts 15.3 million monthly active users and 4.9 million daily active users and has racked up 58 billion total Afrobeats streams since 2020.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tWhile the streamer hasn\u2019t added more offices on the continent outside of its Lagos headquarters \u2013 which now has 12 people across its social media, graphic design, curatorial, business development and content operations departments \u2013 it has deployed ambassadors in additional countries like Kenya, Rwanda and Uganda. Those ambassadors help Audiomack better navigate the African market with \u201cideas of which artist is popping, which sound is buzzing in this territory, what the scene is like [and] what artists should we be focusing on,\u201d Bwana explains.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tAudiomack has also had to focus on tackling two key issues that hinder the platform\u2019s mission to democratize streaming on the continent \u2013 the first being accessibility. \u201cIn Africa, before we talk about affordability of music, we have to talk about accessibility. A lot of people couldn\u2019t access music in the first place, and Audiomack opened that door\u2026 and reshaped the landscape of the African music industry,\u201d Bwana says.\u00a0<\/p>\n

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\t\t\t\t\tAudiomack Expands in Africa With New Nigeria\u00a0Office\t\t<\/p>\n<\/h3><\/div>\n

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\n\tIn 2021, the streaming service partnered with MTN Nigeria<\/a>, the fastest 5G network<\/a> in West and Central Africa, to introduce the Audiomack+MTN Data Bundle program. Through the program, the company offered the more than 76 million MTN subscribers tailored data bundles, allowing them to stream unlimited music and access Audiomack content without the hassle of data charges. This year, the partnership expanded with the Audiomack+ subscription program, which offers MTN subscribers seamless access to premium Audiomack content \u2013 including uninterrupted streaming and offline downloads \u2013 through three flexible subscription plans. \u201cWe have a monthly subscription, a weekly subscription and a daily subscription, because we figured that people sometimes just buy premium for the day,\u201d says Bwana, adding that 41% of Audiomack users use MTN. \u201cThey don\u2019t need it for a month, or they can\u2019t afford to pay that for the month. But if a big artist drops an album today, and they just want to listen to the album, they just pay for premium for the day.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tStill, Africa\u2019s low internet penetration rate poses a problem for users without MTN coverage. According to the International Telecommunication Union\u2019s Facts and Figures 2024 report<\/a>, just 38% of the continent is able to use the internet, while only 11% have access to a 5G network. Bwana notes that offline downloads are \u201ceverybody\u2019s favorite feature\u201d on the app, with Audiomack reporting 1.9 billion offline downloads since 2020. \u201cYou\u2019re able to listen to the music on the go whenever you\u2019re not connected,\u201d she says. \u201cThis is a premium feature for many DSPs, and for us, it\u2019s a feature that you still can access on the ad-based tier.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"Charlotte
Charlotte Bwana <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\n\tThis gets to the second major hurdle Audiomack has been tackling: payment. While the company is making sure its different subscription models are suitable for African users\u2019 limited internet access, it\u2019s also ensuring the payment methods are just as convenient. \u201cIn Africa, [there are] 54 different countries, and you\u2019re working with many currencies. As you\u2019re scaling a business, you have to figure out how to accommodate the entire continent,\u201d says Bwana. \u201cSeventy percent of the population [in South Africa] is banked, so they have access to credit and credit cards, and they can pay for stuff online. Then you go to Kenya, where everybody uses mobile money. With every country that I\u2019ve been to, not only am I talking to the artists to market them and create content, but I\u2019m also talking to telcos and fintechs and trying to figure out payment systems so we can make it seamless for people to pay for music.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tLast year, Audiomack partnered with Flutterwave<\/a>, Africa\u2019s largest payment network, to leverage its expertise in secure and reliable payment processing so artists can \u201cmonetize their art effectively,\u201d Audiomack CEO\/co-founder David Macli <\/strong>said in a press statement. Audiomack can reach even more users in Africa via seamless payment options, including bank transfers, local cards and mobile money. This year, the company also partnered with Carry1st<\/a>, Africa\u2019s leading mobile games and digital content publisher, to tap into its proprietary payment solution, Pay1st, so consumers can purchase their subscriptions using local payment methods including mobile money, popular digital wallets and bank transfers. \u201cA lot of people on Audiomack are Gen-Z, they\u2019re in that age where they\u2019re discovering music but they\u2019re also gaming,\u201d says Bwana. \u201cWe were thinking of how do we bridge the gap between music and gaming, and also, how do we make sure that the artists are earning more royalties and being discovered even by the gamers.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

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\t\t\t\t\tTicketmaster Expands Presence in Africa With Quicket\u00a0Acquisition\t\t<\/p>\n<\/h3><\/div>\n

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\n\tOutside of accessibility and affordability, artist discovery is another one of Audiomack\u2019s priorities. The platform has been identifying the continent\u2019s rising stars before they gain global recognition through Keep the Beat Going<\/a>, an annual campaign that focuses on amplifying artists\u2019 profiles and introducing them to new global markets through billboards in major cities, playlists, digital ads, creator workshops and more. Since its launch in 2022, Keep the Beat Going has highlighted 72 artists from Ghana, Tanzania, Nigeria, South Africa and Kenya, including Ayra Starr<\/a>, Burna Boy<\/a>, Rema<\/a> and Uncle Waffles<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tAside from artists, Audiomack is also keeping its fingers on the pulse of new trends coming out of the continent. Bwana believes Nigerian street pop is the \u201cnext big thing,\u201d as evidenced by Asake and Seyi Vibez\u2019s success on the platform. The latter is the most streamed artist in Nigeria, accumulating 1.4 billion plays on Audiomack since 2020, while the former is a close second with 1.2 billion plays. To date, Asake\u2019s 2023 album Work of Art <\/em>is the most streamed Afrobeats album on the platform with 476 million plays, while his hit \u201cLonely at the Top\u201d from the album is the most streamed Afrobeats song on Audiomack with 87 million plays.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cWe have a lot of people achieving their first hundred thousand or million streams on Audiomack,\u201d says Bwana. \u201c[We\u2019ve] accommodated both listeners and artists, and this is what really sets us apart from a lot of the other streaming platforms.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Aller \u00e0 la source<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

While Afrobeats has been hailed as Africa\u2019s biggest cultural export, its growth on the continent is also cause for celebration. The 2023 and 2024 IFPI Global Reports revealed Sub-Saharan Africa was the fastest-growing region in the world, with this year\u2019s report documenting a 25% rise in music sales largely driven by increased adoption of paid […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-119770","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-musique","et-doesnt-have-format-content","et_post_format-et-post-format-standard"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cyberlego.com\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/119770","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cyberlego.com\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cyberlego.com\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cyberlego.com\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cyberlego.com\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=119770"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.cyberlego.com\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/119770\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cyberlego.com\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=119770"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cyberlego.com\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=119770"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cyberlego.com\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=119770"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}