Boomplay is a dominant part of Africa’s steadily growing music streaming market, boasting over 59 million active users as at May 2021. The freemium streaming service, developed by Transsnet Music Limited, has been working hard to both improve its market share on the continent and provide value for the African music terrain. In addition to signing licensing agreements with international record labels to improve its on-demand catalogue, it also very recently partnered with Nigeria’s pioneering TurnTable charts, sharing its data with the local chart publication to better reflect music consumption within the country.

Taking a huge step further, Boomplay’s streaming numbers will now be added to the data that informs the Billboard charts. The marquee announcement was made earlier today, with the statement reporting that the streaming platform’s data will be reflected on the Billboard Hot 100 singles chart, Billboard 200 albums chart, and the other global charts. While the Hot 100 and album chart solely reflect music listening numbers in the U.S, the global charts will take into account listening numbers from around the world, and Africa will now be better reflected since Boomplay is one of the leading streaming services on the continent.

 

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In the announcing statement, Boomplay’s Director of Content & Strategy, Phil Choi described Boomplay’s addition to the Billboard charts as “a significant step in ensuring African artistes on the platform are fairly and equally represented where it matters and that they have access to similar opportunities available to their international counterparts. While this might have seemed far-fetched in the past, we now have one foot in the door already following our partnership with Billboard Charts.” Within MRC Data’s Music Connect platform, Boomplay streams will be included in the ‘Others’ data bucket under Audio On-Demand with data visible on October 12, 2021 for streams beginning on October 8, 2021.

Afropop has been having a delightful year on the global stage, with two songs currently rising on the Hot 100 charts. Boomplay’s partnership with Billboard will only embolden that growing global dominance, opening the gates to even more achievements in the near future.

@dennisadepeter is a staff writer at the NATIVE.

AFROPOP ON THE RISE: WE’RE TRULY GLOBAL