Songa by Safaricom was introduced back in February this year and to say that the service has had a slow start would be appropriate. First, the streaming industry in Kenya is still in its infancy and the market that Songa by Safaricom would serve, mostly stream international music an area that the app is yet to catch up on.
At launch, the streaming service reported to have over 2.5 million songs in its database charged a daily subscription fee of Kes.25 or a weekly Kes.150 or a monthly fee of Kes.499. Over time, the weekly and monthly subscription options seemed to have disappeared and Songa by Safaricom users were only left with the daily offering.
Unceremoniously, Safaricom has introduced a new daily subscription offering that costs Kes.5. Branded Songa Gold, the 5 bob daily subscription will offer customers access to all local, African and a select of international songs available on Songa. The 25 bob subscription is still available as Songa Premium and offers full access to Songa’s music database.
Update – Data Free Streaming:
Safaricom has announced that users can now download an unlimited number of songs on Songa which will allow them to stream the downloaded songs offline. This is what Safaricom is referring to as “data free streaming”.
100,000+ Downloads
According to Google Play Store stats, Songa by Safaricom has gathered over 100,000 downloads over the seven months that it has been available for download. Interestingly, the app has a rating of 3.8 stars from reviews of around 1,208 users.
The arguably poor rating comes from a time when Songa would randomly crash when streaming music amongst other bugs such as automatically logging users out as well as failed new user sign-ups. The lack of a wide variety of artists and songs seemed to also discourage most users if the comments are anything to go by.
Users also don’t seem particularly happy that Songa only offers 15-second previews if one does not have a subscription. My personal gripe with the service is that I need a subscription service to stream FM radio. Anyway, before this turns into a rant, the headline is that Songa by Safaricom now has a daily 5 bob subscription plan, so maybe you should give it a try, maybe.
Read More: Counterfeiter Beats Safaricom to Launch Songa App on iOS
