Boomplay Music, Africa’s fastest growing music streaming and download service, has introduced its pre-order feature to content providers, giving its users the opportunity to reserve personal copies of music from their favourite artistes before the music is released.

This is the first time in Africa, a music service will launch the pre-order feature, one that allows content providers to smile to the bank, as Boomplay Music launches yet another way to curb music piracy.

The pre-order feature is available on the latest version v3.1.1 launched on May 2. Users who are using an old version will need to upgrade their app to the latest version either via in-app upgrade or Google Play Store to start enjoying this feature.

With this new development, music lovers can now order for content by their favourite artistes by making payments before it is released, using the various payment options available on Boomplay Music app such as Airtime, Paga, PesaPal etc. Once payment is complete, the users will be notified on the release date.

Offering the pre-order feature puts Boomplay Music in a category of similar music services like iTunes, with the payment aspect positioning Boomplay at an obvious advantage since users can easily make payment using their mobile airtime.

Based on feedback accumulated from beta testers, Boomplay claims the pre-order feature will enable its users to stay ahead when it comes to music releases, thereby making them pacesetters in the industry, since they will always be the first to get, discover and consume new music as it drops.

Joe He, Director of Boomplay Music, stated that the pre-order feature was launched as a result of the many requests from content providers, who wanted to identify their true fans and get the opportunity to connect with them using data obtained through the pre-order sales.

He said: Real fans buy music and will not only look forward to new releases but will also be willing to purchase them prior to time. We think this easy-to-use feature will meet our users’ needs for convenience and being up-to-date. More importantly, the pre-order feedback could also help the artists and labels make or adjust their business plans accordingly and early enough.

Back in January 2017, when Boomplay announced a major milestone of reaching over 1 million installations on Google Play Store, Boomplay’s General Manager for Operations, Oye Akideinde mentioned that the service was ‘actively working’ on some features that will make artistes and music lovers more satisfied with the platform.

Boomplay has rolled out this feature with the release of Seyi Shay’s coming single ‘Weekend Vibes’, which is now available for pre-order here (http://www.boomplaymusic.com/share/album/193724) and will be released to the public on the 12th of May, 2017.