Photo Credit: Mdundo
African music streaming service Mdundo saw a net increase of 10 million more users in 2022, with 23.4 million active monthly users by the end of the year.
As an established presence in the music streaming scene in Africa, Mdundo is in-line with its 2025 goal of reaching 50 million monthly active users. The company saw a 15% increase in unique active users in the last half of the year alone.
Mdundo’s projections at the beginning of the year stated that subscription revenue is expected to account for 40% of total revenue within a few years. This projection is still the case per its year-end report, as paying subscriber revenue accounts for an estimated 33% of the total revenue for July-December 2022. The company’s reports show that these projections are within reach.
The company launched two new billing partnerships with telecommunication companies in the first half of 2022, with MTN Ghana and MTN South Africa. As a result, the Mdundo Premium tier is now available to 185 million customers within Nigeria, Tanzania, Ghana, and South Africa — roughly 30% of the 600 million mobile subscribers in Sub-Saharan Africa.
Mdundo saw strong growth in advertising revenue at 89%, from 2.3 million in 2021 to 4.3 million in 2022. Much of their latest marketing orders come from Kenya, but a growing number of deals from new commercial focus markets include Tanzania, Nigeria, and Uganda.
By the end of 2022, Mdundo approached nearly 500,000 African songs directly uploaded to the platform by more than 140,000 rights holders, up by 32% from the end of 2021. The service offers 1.7 million songs from Warner Music Group, Universal Music Group, and Believe Digital.
Last year, the fastest-growing licensing partners on Mdundo were Slide Digital in Tanzania, Dapper and Mavin in Nigeria, Content Connect Africa in South Africa, and Saldid Records in Kenya. This growth indicates the catalog released within the period in addition to marketing initiatives within Mdundo’s platform, consisting of display banners and audio advertisements embedded into music tracks for non-Premium users.
The company expects to reach revenue of between 13-16 million for the year ending June 30, 2023, which is in line with their projections and financial guidance with increased investment focusing on driving value per user through premium products and marketing partnerships.