Several music streaming services exist in Kenya.
However, none of these platforms have been made for Kenya, which is where BoomPlay comes in.
Boomplay has also been offerings its music streaming services in Kenya and around Africa for an extended period. It is packed to the brim with a lot of features and songs and even allows users to save their music offline for their free-tier plan.
Today, the company is making its presence known further following a partnership with Telkom Kenya.
The state’s third-largest operator will see its customers access music on the Boomplay app for KES 300. The amount will see users access music for a month, but those who cannot be able to part with the amount should remember that BoomPlay has thought about them: there is a weekly plan, and those who use the platform sporadically can access a daily package that allows them to stream music without ads, and with high fidelity sound. Sounds great, right?
BoomPlay App
Boomplay has a catalog of more than 80 million songs. The beauty of the platform is that you can find local songs that are usually hard to access on other streaming platforms. Besides, other streaming platforms make it so hard to find local playlists, or similar songs after you have played a couple of your favourites.
Put differently, if I search for a certain Kenyan song in a rival streaming app, there are high chances that the recommendations will skip local songs and switch to songs from the West, even if they fall under the same genre. This has been an issue for a lot of people, and I am glad BoomPlay addresses it.
Have also mentioned that finding playlists that have been made for the local market, with local artists, is very easy on Boomplay? That by itself is a great feature that a lot of people should appreciate.
And how much do plans cost, as a whole?
A 30-day subscription will cost KES 300.
For a week, Boomplay will cost KES 160.
Daily subscriptions also exist at KES 50.
Now, while you have to top up your debit card or mobile money wallet to pay for a music streaming service, Boomplay doesn’t do that provided you have a Telkom Kenya line. All you have to do is ensure you have sufficient airtime, and the subscription fees will be subtracted from the credit. It is easy like that.
Signing up
The first step to signing up for the service is by downloading the Boomplay app for your smartphone.
Set it up by logging into your account. If you have not used the app before, you can easily sign up using your Google account, which is faster.
Then from your messages, send the word BOOM to 25470123. Send the message using your Telkom line if you have a dual SIM phone.
Afterward, you will receive an SMS of congratulations for having subscribed to Boompaly.
You will be given an option to choose from the three said plans.
Authenticate and your premium subscription will be activated immediately.
Alternatively, you can click on this link, and it will take you to the subscription page. You can follow the prompts from there.
The Experience
The Boomplay app looks like any other music streaming service, but it has more tricks under its sleeve.
Perhaps the most important one is that you can save tunes, albeit in slightly low quality while using the free tier option. You don’t find this kind of feature anywhere else.
The platform has ads and does not shy away from showing them to you. However, once you choose to go premium, they are removed. Going premium also means that the quality of your tunes goes up to 320kbps from 128kbps or 64kbps. You can also download songs in 320kbps too.
Also, this is the first time I have seen a music app that allows listeners to leave comments on a song. It is a more personal way of interacting with a tune, and the production team behind it.
We are still testing the app, and will be giving you more updates in the coming days about our experience.
In the meantime, I have you subscribed to the service yet?
Quotes
”This partnership is a great step in our journey to ensure that music is more affordable and accessible to users across the country. With millions of subscribers on their platform, Telkom offers the ideal opportunity to enhance our vision of ensuring the African music ecosystem unlocks its full potential,” says Martha Huro, Boomplay’s Managing Director of East Africa.
“With increased commoditization of the Internet, content is king and we are looking at leveraging our mobile data network to give our customers an unrivaled experience. It is strategic partnerships such as these that will make this happen faster,” says Telkom’s Marketing Director, Eric Achola.
He added: “This tie-up allows for growth and subscriber retention for both partners through affordable data by Telkom and new content on demand from Boomplay.”
