8 Music Streaming Platforms Used by Most Nairobians

Despite music streaming being a relatively new phenomenon in Kenya, many Nairobians are quickly dropping the old-fashioned methods of listening to music and embracing music streaming.

In this article, we document the top music streaming apps used by most Nairobians. 

Have a look. 

• Spotify 

Officially launched in Kenya early this year, the Swedish audio streaming behemoth Spotify is the world’s largest music streaming service provider with over 380 million monthly active users. Nairobians join millions of active listeners to stream their favorite podcasts and music on Spotify. 

Spotify is loved by many Nairobians as it offers users a diverse library of music, a well-customized music experience, and an aesthetically pleasing and easy-to-navigate application. It also makes music discovery exceptionally easy while also making it easy to listen to the songs you already love. Users can make collaborative playlists with friends and can even see and play what their friends are listening to.

Spotify also offers a premium subscription that offers ad-free streaming, unlimited song skips, blocks explicit music, and even playing your favorite music while offline. From a personal perspective, I have the best experience using Spotify and the best recommendation is ‘use to appreciate’

Spotify Rates are:

Individual Plan – Ksh299

Duo Plan – Ksh389

Family Plan – Ksh479

Student Plan – Ksh149

• Deezer

This is a French-based music streaming platform that allows its users to listen to diverse music content as well as podcasts on various devices whether online or offline. It’s used by many Nairobians as one can find more local music on Deezer than any other international platform around not forgetting its extensive music catalog, vast device support, user-friendly interface, and decent non-music content. There’s also a free tier if you want to try it first before fully diving in.

Deezer Rates are:

Individual Plan – Ksh327

Family Plan – Ksh547

• Boomplay

Boomplay is one of Africa’s largest streaming service with over 50 million active monthly users and 11 million active daily users. Since the pandemic, Boomplay has seen a sharp increase in streaming in Kenya as compared to 2019.

With a music catalog of more than 50 million tracks, Boomplay simply gives you a lot to listen to.

Boomplay Rates are:

Google pay plan – Ksh199

Boom Coins Plan – 199 coins

Flutterwave Plan – Ksh199

• Apple Music 

Apple Music is a streaming service that allows you to listen to over 70 million songs. Its great features include the ability to download your favorite tracks and play them offline, lyrics in real time, listening across all your favorite devices, new music personalized just for you, and curated playlists.

Apple Music rates are: 

Individual Plan – Ksh327

Family Plan – Ksh547

Student Plan –  Ksh163

• Audiomack

Audiomack is a youth-driven, artist-first music streaming platform that allows creators to share unlimited music and podcast content for free. It works across all your devices, with no listening limits and unlimited skips. Many Nairobians love Audiomack as it offers personalized recommendations that are as individual as your music taste. You can also create your music library from millions of available playlists, albums, and mixes.

Premium plan – Ksh500

• Mdundo

With over 7m active users, 90000 registered artists, presence in 15 African countries and over 20m monthly downloads, Mdundo is the fastest-growing homegrown music streaming platform. Mdundo allows users to download tracks for free offering the flexibility to connect to open Wi-Fi networks instead of using your data bundles. 

• YouTube

This is the biggest music streaming service in the world, considering its scale, both in terms of its overall users and the more than two billion people who specifically consume music on it. YouTube has the largest collection of both audio and visual music and many Nairobians if connected to the internet find themselves using YouTube to stream most of their music every now and then. You can download your favorite music and then listen to it while offline.

• Tidal

Tidal is a New York-based music streaming service that is available in 56 countries. It has more than 70 million songs and 250,000 high-quality videos, along with original video series, podcasts, and thousands of playlists. The Tidal user experience is fantastic. It doesn’t really matter whether you’re using the desktop or mobile application,  its design is great and easy to navigate. Tidal is a superb music streaming service, ideal for anyone with a penchant for hi-fidelity audio

Tidal Rates are: 

Premium – $9.99 USD a month with standard sound quality

HiFi – $19.99 USD a month with lossless High Fidelity sound quality, Master Quality audio, and immersive audio – 360 Reality Audio, Dolby Atmos Music

Family Premium – $14.99 USD a month including up to 5 additional family members. Standard sound quality

Family HiFi – $29.99 USD a month including up to 5 additional family members. Lossless High Fidelity sound quality, Master Quality audio, and immersive audio – 360 Reality Audio, Dolby Atmos Music 

Discounted  Tidal Plans:

Student Premium – $4.99 USD a month

Student HiFi – $9.99 USD a month