Mdundo CEO Martin Nielsen during interview this week and Kenyan dancers at a public forum. PHOTO | salaton njau | NMG
Martin Nielsen, the chief executive of music streaming platform
Mdundo, has what he considers a perfect solution for music piracy: don’t
fight it. Instead, the industry should develop affordable and
attractive alternatives to illegal downloads.
“It makes more sense to invest in growing a legal industry than trying to kill an illegal industry,” he says.
And
he ought to know a thing or two about the local music industry. For the
last four years he has been running Mdundo, a local music download and
streaming platform that is trying to find the mix of attractive,
affordable and profitable that will finally woo Kenyans away from
illegal sites while making money for artistes.
The
formula is to provide free downloads and earn revenue from advertising.
It seems to be working well enough that Mdundo has 1.5 million users
every month and, recently, Mr Nielsen signed a deal with American music
giant Warner Music Group.
Under the agreement, Warner
will make available its catalogue on Mdundo’s platform for offline
streaming. Mdundo’s focus has been African music, building a catalogue
of 40,000 artistes from 37 countries. Now, however, customers can
shuffle between Zilozopendwa and Bruno Mars on the Mdundo app.
The
Warner deal, argues Mr Nielsen, is a sign that African streaming
companies are not just “some crazy entrepreneurs running around trying
to sell music” but businesses that can meet the standards set by their
international peers.
The deal is also a pointer to the
positive outlook for the streaming business in Kenya and on the
continent. Companies like Spotify and Tidal have been slow to make their
services available in Africa.
However, deepening smartphone penetration, falling data prices
and rising disposable incomes in a youthful population make African
countries attractive investment targets for the international music
giants.
“I think what really excites us is the fact
that we’ve not really turned on the emerging markets when it comes to
paid streaming, and when you start to do the maths, when you look at
some of those countries with mass populations, that’s very exciting,”
said Adam Granite, who heads Sony Music Entertainment in Africa.
The
2017 Global Music Report estimates that revenue from streaming grew
334.2 per cent in South Africa in 2016. While South Africa is an
advanced market, data from the rest of the continent suggests similar
positive trends.
Consultancy firm PwC had predicted
that digital sales of music would overtake physical sales by 2015. While
it is not yet clear if this has happened, the firm also predicted that
digital sales would grow faster than physical ones.
And it is not just start-ups and multinationals that are noticing the potential.
Safaricom
, which has long sold music through its Skiza platform, in June announced plans to launch a music streaming application.
But
there are huge specks blurring this rosy figures for the future. The
first is that even with free services like Mdundo, perception shift
would be required to move Kenyans from illegal downloads.
“Legal
digital music services face stiff competition from unauthorised
services and music that is available online,” writes PwC. Mdundo has a
premium subscription service and in the long-term, the company plans to
graduate more of its users into becoming paying customers. However, the
payment infrastructure that would form the foundation for this remains
“tedious,” says Mr Nielsen.
Although
digital payments are evolving in Kenya, the journey towards seamless
online payments is not happening that fast. In Mdundo’s other markets,
Nigeria, Tanzania and Uganda, the payment ecosystems are less developed.
Another hurdle is data. Although prices are falling,
Internet access remains expensive for most Kenyans. Adapting to this
requires businesses to shift from the traditional streaming to models
such as downloads or offline streaming.
The African
market is also unique because market power in the music industry is not
as concentrated as say in the United States.
So, for
instance, while the Warner deal has given Mdundo immediate access to
thousands of artistes, a similar deal would not be possible in Kenya or
even Tanzania.
“You can’t sign on all Kenyan artistes
with one contract. You have to go to each of them,” says Mr Nielsen.
Over the last decade, numerous music download and streaming services
have come and gone in the region.
Mr Nielsen argues
that companies stepping into this business must play the long game,
revenues will be slow in coming and profits will even be slower.
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