Ayoba, the African super app, has announced the launch of a new focus on music in its app. The new music homepage in ayoba offers a much superior design with enhanced player and great artist / playlist images. Users are advised to update their apps to the latest version of the app, 0.42.2, on ayoba.me to try it for themselves. This app update will also ensure users have access to the super app’s full feature set – including recent updates to add voice and video calling to the current chat and channel offering.
“It has been an amazing journey building a music service in ayoba”, said CEO, Burak Akinci. The year started with 40,000 monthly music users and we are currently at 300,000 monthly music users. The main territories are South Africa, Nigeria and Cameroon and we expect this growth trend to continue. The new music homepage in ayoba will further increase music discovery on the app, and we anticipate a favorable response from users”.
Simfy Africa [Pty] Ltd, owner of the ayoba app, has also announced the closure of its independent music streaming service, MusicTime®. MusicTime® launched in December 2018 in South Africa with its partner, MTN, and was rolled out in selected MTN markets in subsequent years.
Simfy Africa [Pty] Ltd has made the decision to embed music in ayoba and not split its focus by running two independent apps. The MusicTime® app will be closed to new users this week, and will remain open to existing users until 30 November 2021. MusicTime® evolved as a product of the Simfy Africa music streaming service, which was launched earlier this year.
“We take this opportunity to thank all our Simfy and MusicTime® users for their support. It has been ten years since the Simfy service was launched, and the music industry and the competitive landscape have changed significantly. We see a greater opportunity for growth with the offering of music in ayoba”, says Akinci. ‘A direct comparison of the growth of MusicTime® and ayoba music services in the past year shows a clear preference for the service in ayoba, both in number of users and plays. The update to the music homepage on ayoba is the first in a series of upcoming updates to the app with our heightened focus on music and content.
The music offer in ayoba offers 20 localised playlists per week per territory. Nigerian music users, for example, see a different offer to Cameroonian ones. The playlists are alternated weekly with favourites updated with new tracks. South Africa has brought the biggest success for music in ayoba so far, with Nigeria and Rwanda following closely behind.
The service has seen millions of plays this year, with the continent’s most famous artist as Master KG and the most popular song as Summeryomuthi by Blaq Diamond. The same song takes the top spot for South Africa with Makhadzi coming in as the top artist. Olamide takes the honours for Nigeria as the most played artist with the favourite song being Naira Marley by Zinoleesky. Best artist from Ghana goes to Sarkodie, with the favourite song as Inna Song by DarkoVibes. Tributes for Rwanda goes to Diamond Platinumz and the top song is South of the Border (feat. Camila Cabello & Cardi B) by Ed Sheeran. Cameroon and CongoB have heard Fally Ipupa with the lead song Mon Meilleur Ami by Rosny Kayiba.
Ayoba’s weekly Top Songs and New Music Fridays playlists have proven to be favourites across all territories. Other major playlists that are notable are Gloire à Dieu for Cameroon and CongoB. Ziyaduma! For South Africa, Olamide: Birthday playlist in Nigeria and Ghana’s 50 most popular songs.
