{"id":218779,"date":"2024-12-09T19:06:36","date_gmt":"2024-12-09T19:06:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.musicbusinessworldwide.com\/?p=218779"},"modified":"2024-12-09T21:26:41","modified_gmt":"2024-12-09T21:26:41","slug":"sony-music-pulls-catalog-from-boomplay","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.musicbusinessworldwide.com\/sony-music-pulls-catalog-from-boomplay\/","title":{"rendered":"Sony Music pulls catalog from Africa-focused music streaming service Boomplay"},"content":{"rendered":"

It’s long been touted as one of the most exciting music streaming platforms in Africa – with over 98 million monthly active users<\/a> as of the end of 2023 and a steep growth trajectory.<\/p>\n

But now Boomplay’s<\/strong> relationship with music’s leading global rightsholders is looking precarious.<\/p>\n

MBW has confirmed that Sony Music has this week pulled its full catalog from the service, including titles distributed by The Orchard <\/strong>and AWAL.<\/strong><\/p>\n

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Meanwhile, sources tell MBW that concerns have been growing at other rightsholders over late royalty payments from the platform.<\/p>\n

Boomplay is owned by Transsnet Music<\/strong>, a joint venture between China-based mobile phone maker TRANSSION Holdings Group and China-headquartered internet giant NetEase<\/a><\/strong>\u00a0(owner of streaming service\u00a0NetEase Cloud Music<\/a>).<\/p>\n

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The streaming service struck its\u00a0licensing deal<\/a> with Sony Music in 2019, having also previously signed deals with the other two major music companies, Warner Music Group <\/a>and Universal Music Group<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Boomplay also signed a licensing deal with independent label agency Merlin<\/a> in 2021.<\/p>\n

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News of Boomplay’s fractious relationship with rightsholders arrives five years after the company\u00a0raised $20 million in a series A funding round in 2019 <\/a>to fund its expansion across Africa and to help it build its catalog of tracks.<\/p>\n

Sources tell MBW that the company is currently in the process of raising additional funds.<\/p>\n

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Boomplay claims to have become “the No.1 music streaming and download platform in Africa” since its launch in 2015.<\/p>\n

It was initially launched in Nigeria by a company called TECNO Mobile. Today, Boomplay also has offices in Ghana, Kenya, and Tanzania.<\/p>\n

The platform, which offers both ad-supported and premium tiers, competes with the likes of Audiomack, plus global streaming giants Spotify and Apple Music, as well as local players such as Mdundo<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

The platform’s rise has coincided with the growth of Sub-Saharan Africa’s recorded music market, the fastest-growing music region in both 2023 and \u00a02022<\/a>, according to the IFPI.<\/p>\n

The departure of Sony’s catalog from the platform follows last month’s news that Phil Choi, the former Managing Director of the Africa-focused music-streaming service, had left his role after six years to join Warner Music Group.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Sources tell MBW that concerns have been growing at other rightsholders over late royalty payments from the platform<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":15,"featured_media":218852,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[5357],"class_list":["post-218779","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-boomplay"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.musicbusinessworldwide.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/218779","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.musicbusinessworldwide.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.musicbusinessworldwide.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.musicbusinessworldwide.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/15"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.musicbusinessworldwide.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=218779"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.musicbusinessworldwide.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/218779\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.musicbusinessworldwide.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/218852"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.musicbusinessworldwide.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=218779"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.musicbusinessworldwide.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=218779"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.musicbusinessworldwide.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=218779"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}