Boomplay’s vision for Ghana ‘on track’

According to the company, the Chinese-owned DSP is Africa’s largest and fastest-growing music streaming service. It boasts a catalogue of more than 80 million songs and 70 million monthly active users, and is behind development projects to grow the music industries on the continent.

“We hope to achieve this by empowering the ecosystem to unlock its full potential,” Boomplay Ghana general manager Elizabeth Ntiamoah-Quarshie, who recently joined Grammy Awards oversight body the Recording Academy, told Music In Africa. “This vision drives our operational strategies and is at the core of every new development at Boomplay.”

Since its launch in Nigeria in 2015, the company has expanded to other parts of the continent, including Kenya, Tanzania, Ghana and Cameroon. In June, Boomplay announced the launch of its Ivory Coast office, which is expected to grow the company’s presence in Francophone West Africa.

Prior to the company’s arrival in Africa, the culture of streaming was not too popular in Ghana, and its main task was to sensitise stakeholders about the new technology. Though it took some time, and some convincing, Boomplay finally enjoys positive reception, especially from artists. “The Ghanaian music industry has come to realise the value of our platform for music monetisation and promotion,” Ntiamoah-Quarshie says.

Beyond its core mandate to be a profitable streaming platform, the music exec also stresses Boomplay’s role in "weaning the industry off the culture of content creators or artists putting out their music on music blogs and other illegal music sites for free.”

In analysing the African music industry, the Boomplay team came to realise that they were dealing with a fragmented terrain – every market presented unique complexities – and time was needed to understand the strategies that would work for the DSP. “The business went through a learning curve in Ghana just as it did in Nigeria and Kenya. This meant the iteration of our approach to operations until we arrived at a model that suited the local space.”

Being a pioneer DSP in Ghana meant that Boomplay had to be actively involved in reimagining the local digital music landscape through its app. “For instance, to address piracy, our platform is digital rights management-protected, ensuring content providers retain all of their rights while all downloads remain on the Boomplay app and not as files on consumers’ devices,” Ntiamoah-Quarshie explains.

But she says that while platforms like Boomplay have ensured a significant reduction in piracy and free music downloads, more work needs to be done to offer value to content providers. “With regard to advocating for legal consumption of music so that artists can benefit from the use of their content, we operate a mix of ad-free paid subscription and ad-supported freemium models. This is to enable us to pay streaming royalties while also attract more music consumers to our platform,” she said, adding that Boomplay upholds royalty payment transparency where content providers are given access to an interface that allows them to upload and manage content, check the performance of their content and verify royalty reports in real time.

Boomplay has also pledged its commitment to help grow the Ghanaian music industry. Since starting operations in Ghana in 2018, Boomplay has embarked on advocacy drives to educate stakeholders about music streaming, due to Africa’s potential as a key future market. The company also advised artists on how they could take advantage of digital platforms and build online communities for their benefit.

“When it comes to educating stakeholders of the music industry, our primary focus currently is artists and their management teams,” Ntiamoah-Quarshie said. “Our office here in Ghana serves as a repository of information for the music industry, especially for emerging artists. We regularly engage stakeholders by sharing and discussing relevant information about the digital music economy and music business strategies. We are constantly connecting artists and budding music execs with other key industry people, corporate bodies, brands and established execs for working relations, collaborations and mentorship.”

About the solutions that could accelerate growth in the local music industry, Ntiamoah-Quarshie said, “We need more professionals and expert music companies within the music industry to ensure that we implement and normalise global standards that can radically change the fortunes of the ecosystem. We could also do with more investment to enable music businesses to scale up and increase capacity.”

To overcome hurdles such as high data costs and low internet penetration, she intimated that Boomplay had been pursuing various partnerships to render music streaming more accessible and affordable to its users.

Regarding the DSP’s special focus on emerging artists, she said, “Artists are the heartbeat of the music industry and are key to sustaining it. Our support for them, no matter the level of their careers, is predicated on growing and developing Ghana’s music industry. Our focus on the new generation of exciting Ghanaian talents is because they are key to sustaining the music industry, and, truly, they need all the support they can get at the onset of their careers.

“Over the past four years, Boomplay has grown a reputation as an enabler of both established and new artists by providing online and offline promotion, instituting support programmes and sponsoring initiatives toward music development. Notable emerging Ghanaian voices who have benefited from our initiatives include Gyakie, Black Sherif and Yaw Tog.”

The arrival and expansion of global DSPs like Spotify and Apple Music into more African countries means that there is added competition among the streaming players. But Ntiamoah-Quarshie says her team is “not worried” and welcomes any player that is positively impacting the African music industry.

“Boomplay is unique in its operations and genuine with our vision to help unlock its potential in the music industry. We are focused on creating a sustainable system that benefits the local content creator or artist. We will therefore continue with our operations in that regard,” she said.

In recent times, Boomplay has secured and renewed partnership agreements with the three major global music labels – Universal, Warner and Sony. The company also frequently announces new partnerships with labels, regulators, distributors and telcos. Last year, Boomplay’s streaming data was added to selected Billboard charts. What's the importance of such partnerships in developing the Ghanaian music industry?

“These partnerships ultimately go a long way to help build the music industry by improving standards and initiating solutions,” Ntiamoah-Quarshie said. “For instance, in securing content partnerships like the one we have with the three majors, our focus was to increase the music catalogue we make available to consumers on our platform and by extension have them show business interest in these markets.

“With the attention on African music, Boomplay’s streaming data now counting towards Billboard charts affords our artists similar opportunities as their foreign counterparts. This was far-fetched in the past but not any more. There is a prospect for artists’ exposure on the global stage and on prestigious music platforms.”

In terms of what’s next for Boomplay Ghana, Ntiamoah-Quarshie said, “We have a number of local and global partnerships lined up to be announced soon that will further support our drive to unlock the potential of the music industry. We are also looking forward to adding more value to the Ghanaian music space through programmes, thought leadership and capacity building for stakeholders,” Ntiamoah-Quarshie said.