Close Menu
TechCentralTechCentral

    Subscribe to the newsletter

    Get the best South African technology news and analysis delivered to your e-mail inbox every morning.

    Facebook X (Twitter) YouTube LinkedIn
    WhatsApp Facebook X (Twitter) LinkedIn YouTube
    TechCentralTechCentral
    • News

      Apple shifts its AI strategy

      23 June 2025

      Takealot rides subscription wave to revenue surge

      23 June 2025

      World Bank set to back South Africa’s big energy grid roll-out

      20 June 2025

      The algorithm will sing now: why musicians should be worried about AI

      20 June 2025

      Sita hits back at critics, promises faster, automated procurement

      20 June 2025
    • World

      Watch | Starship rocket explodes in setback to Musk’s Mars mission

      19 June 2025

      Trump Mobile dials into politics, profit and patriarchy

      17 June 2025

      Samsung plots health data hub to link users and doctors in real time

      17 June 2025

      Beijing’s chip champions blacklisted by Taiwan

      16 June 2025

      China is behind in AI chips – but for how much longer?

      13 June 2025
    • In-depth

      Meta bets $72-billion on AI – and investors love it

      17 June 2025

      MultiChoice may unbundle SuperSport from DStv

      12 June 2025

      Grok promised bias-free chat. Then came the edits

      2 June 2025

      Digital fortress: We go inside JB5, Teraco’s giant new AI-ready data centre

      30 May 2025

      Sam Altman and Jony Ive’s big bet to out-Apple Apple

      22 May 2025
    • TCS

      TCS+ | AfriGIS’s Helen Hulett on how tech can help resolve South Africa’s water crisis

      18 June 2025

      TechCentral Nexus S0E2: South Africa’s digital battlefield

      16 June 2025

      TechCentral Nexus S0E1: Starlink, BEE and a new leader at Vodacom

      8 June 2025

      TCS+ | The future of mobile money, with MTN’s Kagiso Mothibi

      6 June 2025

      TCS+ | AI is more than hype: Workday execs unpack real human impact

      4 June 2025
    • Opinion

      South Africa pioneered drone laws a decade ago – now it must catch up

      17 June 2025

      AI and the future of ICT distribution

      16 June 2025

      Singapore soared – why can’t we? Lessons South Africa refuses to learn

      13 June 2025

      Beyond the box: why IT distribution depends on real partnerships

      2 June 2025

      South Africa’s next crisis? Being offline in an AI-driven world

      2 June 2025
    • Company Hubs
      • Africa Data Centres
      • AfriGIS
      • Altron Digital Business
      • Altron Document Solutions
      • Altron Group
      • Arctic Wolf
      • AvertITD
      • Braintree
      • CallMiner
      • CYBER1 Solutions
      • Digicloud Africa
      • Digimune
      • Domains.co.za
      • ESET
      • Euphoria Telecom
      • Incredible Business
      • iONLINE
      • Iris Network Systems
      • LSD Open
      • NEC XON
      • Network Platforms
      • Next DLP
      • Ovations
      • Paracon
      • Paratus
      • Q-KON
      • SevenC
      • SkyWire
      • Solid8 Technologies
      • Telit Cinterion
      • Tenable
      • Vertiv
      • Videri Digital
      • Wipro
      • Workday
    • Sections
      • AI and machine learning
      • Banking
      • Broadcasting and Media
      • Cloud services
      • Contact centres and CX
      • Cryptocurrencies
      • Education and skills
      • Electronics and hardware
      • Energy and sustainability
      • Enterprise software
      • Fintech
      • Information security
      • Internet and connectivity
      • Internet of Things
      • Investment
      • IT services
      • Lifestyle
      • Motoring
      • Public sector
      • Retail and e-commerce
      • Science
      • SMEs and start-ups
      • Social media
      • Talent and leadership
      • Telecoms
    • Events
    • Advertise
    TechCentralTechCentral
    Home » In-depth » Mobile music blooms in Africa

    Mobile music blooms in Africa

    By Russell Southwood8 June 2013
    Twitter LinkedIn Facebook WhatsApp Email Telegram Copy Link
    News Alerts
    WhatsApp

    musical-notes-640

    The largest of the current online platforms, both on mobile and PC, is iRoking — part of iRoko Partners, which also runs a Nollywood film platform in parallel. It received investment from US private equity fund Tiger Global and has been expanding its reach and recently opened a South African office.

    The iRoking free music online platform has 35 000 tracks in its catalogue, dating from 1963 to the present day, and 75 000 registered users. It also manages more than 70 artists’ YouTube pages, with more than 100m views in the past 12 months. Its deal structure is 60/40 in favour of rights owners, the complete reverse of what the mobile companies offer.

    Its CEO, Michael Ugwu, wants to grow that number to a million views by the end of this year and to reach 10m in five years. Of that number, 70% would be outside Africa. It already has around a million unique visitors for its free Nollywood service, iRokoTV.

    It monetises and protects artists’ content for, among others, P-Square, 2face, Bracket, Flavour, Omawumi, Timaya, Duncan Mighty and Lynxxx. The company has reduced piracy of Nigerian music content to nearly zero. iRoking uses digitally fingerprinted sound recordings on YouTube to ensure rights are protected and also publishes Nigerian music content to the iTunes and Amazon stores for paid consumption by the diaspora.

    iThe company has also launched mobile applications for iOS, Android, Windows and Symbian. The apps allow access to thousands of the latest Nigerian tracks. Users can stream songs over Wi-Fi or 3G.

    Nigeria’s Spinlet, meanwhile, is a mobile music management and storage service launched in January 2012. It claims to have almost half a million subscribers and to be growing at 2-3% a day. Chief marketing officer Mark Redguard says the company has partnered with Tecno to pre-install the Spinlet application. “There has been a very good response from consumers who buy the affordable Tecno N3 smartphone and find they have access to Spinlet.”

    The software is also pre-installed on Samsung’s Galaxy Pocket device.

    Spinlet has also partnered with Etisalat in Nigeria to provide an Spinlet Music plan where consumers can purchase daily, weekly or monthly data plans to access the Spinlet library of music.

    The company is anxious to get a broader presence in Africa and has opened an office in Cape Town and hired 15 developers.

    Then there’s Africori, which offers business-to-business services to African music platforms. It has created its own “laboratory” service by running its own platform, Tavoom Music. Its approach is not about offering in-depth catalogues but seeking to curate “the best in African contemporary music … using the wisdom and knowledge of some of the most talented musicians, DJs and tastemakers in the industry”.

    It is aimed at both Africans on the continent and in the diaspora, but says that it will appeal to anyone interested in African music. One of its innovations is a simple one: it has a free song of the day, which can be downloaded at no charge. Another innovation is that its Music Store is available on the feature-phone platform biNu which has 4,8m users globally, 1,5m of which are in Africa.

    Another contender is Kenya’s Mdundo, which its CEO, Gustav Ericcson, describes as “iTunes for Africa”. It has hundreds of tracks, and one of the musicians closely involved in its founding (at mobile accelerator 88mph) is Frasha from P Unit. Sales are currently being driven by the popularity of Kenya’s Octopizzo.

    It can be accessed by any phone that can get a mobile or Wi-Fi data connection and it is launching an app soon for one of the better known mobile platforms and has Android on its road map. Its innovation is to offer prepaid scratch cards to allow users to buy music. These can also be used by musicians who can put them together with concerts tickets or sell them and keep the revenue.

    Last but not least is Waabeh.com which is run by Kenyan studio owner Tim Rimbui. Waabeh means “awesome” or “cool” in street slang. Launched at the beginning of this year, it has formed a partnership between Intel and Safaricom for the former’s Yolo phone. It garnered 2 000 streams in just two months. It aims to become more widely available on the Web and through an Android app.

    For now, Waabeh has 70 artists with about a thousand tracks. Its innovation is that it offers not just music but audio content for things like books, education and lifestyle content.

    • Russell Southwood is head of Balancing Act Africa


    Gustav Ericcson iRoking iRokoTV Mark Redguard Mdundo Michael Ugwu Spinlet Tecno Tiger Global Tim Rimbui Waabeh
    Subscribe to TechCentral Subscribe to TechCentral
    Share. Facebook Twitter LinkedIn WhatsApp Telegram Email Copy Link
    Previous ArticleWhat caused nationwide ADSL outage
    Next Article ZATS: Ep 261 – ‘Time in Taipei’

    Related Posts

    Bookmarks | Showmax is making a South African version of The Office

    2 September 2024

    South African smartphone buyers say ‘howzit China’

    17 April 2024

    Chinese smartphone brands see strong African growth

    19 December 2023
    Company News

    Making IT happen: how Trade Link gears up to enable SA retail strategies

    20 June 2025

    Why parents choose CambriLearn for online education

    19 June 2025

    Disrupt first, ask questions later – the uncomfortable truth about incident response

    18 June 2025
    Opinion

    South Africa pioneered drone laws a decade ago – now it must catch up

    17 June 2025

    AI and the future of ICT distribution

    16 June 2025

    Singapore soared – why can’t we? Lessons South Africa refuses to learn

    13 June 2025

    Subscribe to Updates

    Get the best South African technology news and analysis delivered to your e-mail inbox every morning.

    © 2009 - 2025 NewsCentral Media

    Type above and press Enter to search. Press Esc to cancel.