Business
Spinlet and iROKING: Online platforms rocking Africa
There are now several online and mobile music TV platforms that have started in Africa. Some like Iroko Partners started with Nollywood film and went into music, whilst others like Spinlet have started with music and could easily go into TV programming. For broadcasters, these platforms represent another way to get to their audiences and a potential opportunity for new revenue streams.
Over the past few years there have been several online music services in Africa including streaming of radio stations.
Nigeria’s Spinlet , a mobile music management and storage service launched in January 2012 and iROKING is a free music Nigerian music streaming service that came out of Iroko Partners (Nollywood Love). Also Google’s initiative to have local servers on the continent for You Tube has put a large number of African countries within reach of free local music videos.
Spinlet announced plans to roll out its music app to global users a week ago.
It has global distribution rights for 1 million tracks, primarily for African record labels and is clearly eying the diaspora markets already captured for Nollywood movies by Iroko. It is available in 72 countries with a free streaming and pay per download offers for its African music catalog. Twenty two of these countries are in Africa where it will start offering international content in December of this year.
Spinlet is supported on the most popular smart phones including Android, BlackBerry and Symbian 3 and is available for free download via the Android Market, Blackberry Store, and Symbian Platform. Within Spinlet, users can remotely store, manage and listen to music from anywhere using their mobile device. Spinlet promotes social sharing with an interface that allows users to create accounts, make playlists and share their favorite titles using social-networking sites, such as Facebook with their friends.
This has given Spinlet the clout to sign digital distribution agreements in Nigeria, South Africa, Kenya, Ghana, Angola, Democratic Republic of the Congo and other African Countries. Spinlet offers an array of multi-national, award winning music and has signed hundreds of artists and labels to the service. Additionally, any music rights holders can upload their music for sale on the Spinlet platform.
“Spinlet launched with our main goals being to create a revenue stream for artists with a legitimate outlet for sales and to fight the piracy markets by making to model readily available to music lovers including a free streaming service and downloads that are priced at an affordable level” said Eric Idiahi, Spinlet Chairman.
“The presence of online and mobile music services can easily have a negative effect on traditional mediums. At Spinlet we have created a model that supports them by creating strategic partnership agreements with radio and television stations that benefit each medium and most importantly benefit the content rights holder by showcasing their music and increasing awareness and sales of their tracks” added Mr. Idiahi.
At present, the iROKING free music online platform has 35,000 tracks in its catalog dating from 1963 to the present and 75,000 registered users in total. It also manages over 70 artist’s Youtube pages with more than 100 million views in the past 12 months. Its deal structure is 60/40 in favor of rights owners, the complete reverse of what the mobile companies are currently offering.
It monetises and protects artists’ content.
The company (iROKING) has significantly reduced piracy of Nigerian music content.
iROKING is presently servicing the local Africa and Diaspora markets. The company has also launched mobile applications for its music solution on the iOS, Android, Windows and Symbian (Nokia) mobile handsets.
In terms of impact for TV and radio broadcasters present in Africa, online music is a new type of competitor in the race to audience share but these digital online platforms could also become broadcasters’ best friends in their pursuit to switch to digital and to attract young audience.
The content revolution towards unlimited legal music consumption is under way and Africans have started enjoying it. This will help combat piracy further on the continent but the question remains as to how well these online solutions will contribute to financing the African music sector.
The only barriers for paid online music in Africa are credit card payment and broadband capacity. Mobile money is be the answer to the first one and improved infrastructure is the answer to the second.
The online music services have also relied on the explosion of smartphones and demand in emerging markets, especially in Africa. In a process of recovering from a decade of contraction, the music industry needs to generate new revenues and online access seems to be the way forward.