With an increasing demand for local music in the country, most artists still do not get substantial value for their works.
This is according to the online music streaming platform Mdundo, which says there is huge gap in monetization of artists’ content, a space that urgently needs reforms for a sustained music industry.
In addressing the concern, Mdundo in partnership with Safaricom have thus launched a subscription service that will see listeners access unlimited single music and Dj mixes of all genres at Sh5 a day.
“The service seeks to improve the monetization of music among artists and reshape user experiences,” said Martin Neilsen, CEO at Mdundo.
The service is exclusive to Safaricom customers, which upon registration, customers can discover new artists or enjoy unlimited music downloads and fresh DJ mixes, in turn pushing up the amount of royalties paid to artists.
Mdundo says it pays up to Sh200 million of royalties every year, with about 35 per cent of it going to the Kenyan artists.
Neilsen further noted that besides that service providing a consistent income stream, the partnership programme will also seek to support artists in their pursuit of sustainable music careers.
“A healthy financial pipeline allows artists to focus on creating more music and developing their talent,” he added.
Also speaking during the launch, Safaricom’s head of department- digital services Pauline Kieleko, concurred that the approach is timely as the number of people streaming and downloading music from online streaming platforms is relatively increasing, thanks to digital transformation.
She also noted that there is huge opportunity in digital music streaming platforms with the country having about 20 million active users who go online daily, but with low average data consumption, depicting a huge potential to be harnessed.
“The rising use of smartphones, internet penetration and increased premium products is driving the levels of music consumption in Kenya and Africa at large, hence its paramount we also look into the welfare of the artists to enhance more content creation,” Kieleko said.
Early this year, Mdundo also attributed the increasing number of online listeners to the enhanced partnerships with telecommunication companies.
During the six-month period to December last year, the platform reached 23.4 million unique monthly users, a 15 per cent increase since June 2022 when it had 21 million users.
The firm’s user now stands at 29.2 million monthly active users as of September 2023, up from 21.5 million in September 2022 representing a 36 per cent growth.
It says its focus now is to deliver a locally relevant service and content to 613 million mobile subscribers in Africa expected by 2025.
It currently hosts over 150,000 artists across Africa, of which 58,000 are Kenyan.
The launched premium service in the country is first of the five target countries the platform seeks to launch in according to Neilsen.
The other target markets are: Tanzania, Nigeria, Ghana and South Africa.
