South African gaming payments startup, Carry1st, has entered into a partnership with AudioMack, enabling Audiomack’s customers in Africa to purchase subscriptions to stream music using local payment methods.

Renowned for providing consumers across Africa access to exclusive gaming content for popular titles like VALORANT and Call of Duty: Mobile, Carry1st’s payment solution, Pay1st, enables consumers to pay for digital items via a range of local payment options such as mobile money, popular digital wallets, and bank transfer.

In March 2024, as reported by BitKE, Carry1st added EA SPORTS FC™ Mobile top-ups on the Carry1st Shop, in another partnership with Electronic Arts Inc. (EA).

The partnership with AudioMack, one of the globe’s leading music streaming and discovery platforms with more than 30 million monthly users, demonstrates Carry1st’s expansion beyond gaming, highlighting the its growing diversity of content.

Carry1st, an investee of Sony, Google, and a16z, also offers seamless access to a wide range of products, including daily essentials (airtime, data, and electricity), game gift cards and top-ups, lifestyle, and entertainment vouchers.

According to Carry1st, Audiomack is Africa’s leading music streaming platform catering to millions of music enthusiasts across the continent. The platform emphasizes supporting emerging and independent artists, especially in genres like hip-hop, rap, and Afrobeats.

Audiomack is currently the top-ranked music streaming app on Apple iOS in several African countries, including Nigeria, Ghana, Tanzania, Senegal, and Kenya.

Audiomack’s day, week, and month pass subscriptions are now available for purchase in local currencies through the Carry1st Shop across:

• Nigeria
• Egypt
• Ghana
• South Africa
• Kenya
• Morocco
• Tanzania
• Cameroon
• Côte d’Ivoire
• Rwanda
• Uganda, and
• Senegal

These subscriptions allow music fans to enhance their experience by removing ads, unlocking premium app features, and showing greater support for artists. Benefits include:

• Unlimited downloads
• Access to downloaded playlists
• HiFi streaming

and more.

“We’re really excited to be partnering with such an important platform like AudioMack, which champions entertainment and shares our passion for providing options to African consumers in the entertainment space.

This partnership is a testament to our growth and the versatility of the Carry1st Shop. Not only are we unlocking popular games, but we’re now also unlocking the music that people love,” said Guillaume Noé, VP of Growth for Platform at Carry1st.

“Audiomack is incredibly excited to partner with Carry1st to expand our presence across Africa and make it easier for music fans across the continent to access premium features.

Carry1st has been impactful in growing Africa’s gaming industry for creators and users, and we are confident we can replicate this approach in the music space,” said Charlotte Bwana, VP of Marketing at Audiomack.