JOOX streaming service exits South Africa

The JOOX music streaming service – including JOOX VIP, Telkom Music run by JOOX, and JOOX through MultiChoice’s DStv are all done in South Africa and will shut down on 31 March 2022. JOOX has given no reason for the abrupt termination of its services and a few months ago said that South Africans have been so receptive in the take-up of JOOX that it plans to expand to other African countries as well and would announce expansion plans soon.

The Tencent-owned app made its debut in South Africa in 2017 as the first non-Asian market, after which Telkom launched Telkom Music as a new music streaming service in partnership with JOOX for R60 per month in July 2021, with the app made available on the Google Play Store and Huawei AppGallery.

Joox had also said it planned to expand its services to other African countries. The streaming service was launched in South Africa in 2017 with a catalogue of more than 3 million songs. The country was the first outside of Asia to get the service.

MultiChoice added JOOX VIP in October 2018 as a free value-added service for certain DStv subscribers but is now losing JOOX, although it will still offer Netflix and Amazon Prime Video as third-party streaming services.

Telkom confirmed in a statement:

“Telkom Music powered by JOOX will come to a close as of 31 March 2022. The music service run by JOOX, will come to an end. Users will no longer be able to access the Telkom Music app and continue enjoying its music services. Telkom Music VIP services will be stopped as of 31 December 2021. As passionate lovers of music and entertainment, the Telkom Music powered by JOOX team has been honoured to provide you with music that moves you.”

JOOX says in a statement that “as of 31 March 2022, the JOOX Music service will come to an end in South Africa”.