This week, MTN and music streaming service Audiomack announced a partnership that allows up to 76 million subscribers of MTN in Nigeria to be able to access Audiomack without incurring high data costs.

The alliance is expected to intensify competition among major music streaming service providers, including Spotify, Apple Music and Boomplay Music.

From Boomplay Music signing exclusive album and concert deals with partners to Apple Music launching a show hosted by top Nigerian artist DJ Cuppy, the music streaming services have consistently deployed similar and unique localisation approaches to cater for the needs of the music industry and fans in Nigeria.

Audiomack has been in Nigeria since July 2020 when it appointed Adeyemi Adetunji as head operations and commercial partnerships; Charlotte Bwana to lead business development and media partnerships; and Olive Uche to manage content strategy.

“The partnership will see MTN subscribers gain free access to Audiomack’s streaming service via their mobile devices on weekly and monthly subscriptions. The weekly plan offers 1.2GB + Free Audiomack at N270 while the monthly plan offers 2.5GB + Free Audiomack at N550,” a joint statement read.

Even though a number of songs, albums and artists from Nigeria are easily enjoying millions of streams, Audiomack still believes the high cost of data in the country is preventing it from fully unlocking the potentials of music streaming.

“High data costs are one of the barriers to music streaming and we are glad to be partnering with Africa’s leading telecommunications company to provide the Audiomack+ Data Bundle. We are truly excited to offer the best and hottest new musical tracks—a mix of real-time trending, top charts, and expertly-curated playlists to MTN subscribers,” said Bwana.

MTN, which also has its own music streaming service and partnerships with other streaming platforms, revealed it is still open to partnerships and collaborations.

“We recognise the growing need of our customers to have more options to access entertainment and have partnered with Audiomack to offer them an uninterrupted stream of the best, newest and most diverse music selections,” said Srinivas Rao, Chief Digital Officer, MTN Nigeria.