Artiste and content creators now have a reason to smile as mymusic.com.ng opens up fresh revenue streams, writes BEN UZOR.
The highly anticipated launch of the revolutionary online music distribution website, mymusic.com.ng, marks the beginning of a new era in Nigeria’s music industry. This innovative platform is expected to deal a heavy blow on digital piracy, the single biggest threat to the development of Nigeria’s licensed music industry. Available statistics show that over 2, 000 blogs are pirating music daily. As musicians struggle to eke out a living even as a 100, 000 songs are downloaded every month, digital piracy of music is limiting the financial growth of all industry players, involved in the career of an artiste. In view of this challenge, four young and talented individuals – Damola Taiwo, Dolapo Taiwo, Tola Ogunsola and Olisa Adibua – have struck up a partnership to deliver music to millions of fans across the entire globe that crave for Nigerian music. According to them, the online distribution platform also offers musicians and content creators a fresh revenue stream in a highly competitive industry.
Speaking at the launch of the company in Lagos, weekend, Damola Taiwo, chief operating officer (COO), Mymusic.com.ng, said online piracy constitutes a major drawback to musicians’ ability to get paid for their content. Industry observers say Mymusic.com.ng’s plan is another brilliant shot in the arm, in a manner that would help to revolutionise the country’s fledging entertainment industry. But, many of them are worried about the viability of digital music streaming in Nigeria. According to them, incumbent music streaming outfits have been struggling to make money due to the surge in digital piracy as well as the problems of content monetisation. Taiwo is however optimistic that the ‘Payment by phone credit’ model, which the company has adopted would stand it in good stead for sustainable growth. “Monetisation is a big problem in this country. But, we have addressed that by allowing consumers pay for downloads with their phone credit. It is so easy and convenient for users.
“It’s basically a two-step process where people can search for the music they want and download it. All they need to pay is N30 from their phone credit, and of course data to access the internet”, he explained. The pay by phone credit functionality is available on 300 networks in 80 countries. “It took us two years to create that payment platform. We had look at payment licenses, insurance and servers and so on. Amazon gave us free hosting space worth $10, 000”, said Taiwo. Speaking on the rationale behind the firm’s decision to develop a website as opposed to a mobile application, Damola Taiwo said that majority of the nation’s 83 million internet users are not sophisticated. On the reach of the website, he said, “For now, we have only Nigerian songs because we want to focus, and once we can get that right, we will surely move to other territories.” The COO also disclosed that the online company has signed necessary agreements with all artistes whose songs are on the website.
“We make sure that all songs on our site are there legally and legitimately.” Speaking in the same vein, Tola Ogunsola, chief executive officer of MyMusic.com.ng, said the company was established to help musician generate more revenue from the sale of their music. “We discovered that many musician had literally given up on the retail aspect of their music, so they resort to giving out free music to gain popularity, whilst they make money from endorsements and shows”, he said. Ogunsola, who has a background in technology payments having worked for organisations like Interswitch, Mastercard, Central Switch, said the company is out to help record labels create a system that’s easy for consumers to download music in a process that’s simpler than what currently available. It’s not everybody that doesn’t want to pay for music; it’s just that there’s no service that satisfies their needs. If I have to go through a 10-stage process just to download a song; of course, that’s a deterrent”, he explained.
Giving insight into what stands Mymusic.com.ng out from its competitors, Ogunsola said, “The quality of music on our site is better, and the file size is much lower because of our compression technology. We have a very advanced predictive search on the site as well. So, if you have just an idea of the song you’re looking for, the search-engine is intelligent enough to find it. The CEO also stated that the site will make songs from the 60s and 70s available for download. He said, “We’ve had very interesting conversations with record labels, We have Premier Music, which is the oldest record label in Nigeria, on board now. We have digitised all their songs, and put it online. So if you’re looking for Victor Olaiya’s songs, and others like it, they’re all on our sites.” Popular On Air Personality (OAP), Olisa Adibua who is the chief strategy officer of the firm, will work with other veteran entertainment personalities to vet the music that make it to the site to ensure that they are of top quality.
