Tanzania’s Mkito.com has signed up over 200 artists and aims to be Africa’s Spotify. The online music platform founded by Sune Mushendwa was launched at the end of April in Tanzania and is yet to support other countries.The platform aims to help the artists distribute their music to more fans hence more sales. At the moment Mkito has genres such as bongo flava which is 40% of the whole content, tana, pop music and reggae allows artisits to have their own profile with a complete biography and their album news or releases.
Users access the platform at no cost and the platform is at the moment supported by advertising and some premium content which users pay to listen to online.
The Tanzania-based firm says its targeting of signing up local users in Tanzania fast where there are 7-8 million internet users then expand to Kenya and Uganda and the diaspora to tap into fans of Bongo flava. Mkito aims to sign up 1 million users this year. Hundreds of similar services have launched in Africa and many will still launch but the best will be the one that survives the heat of the day, monetises and helps artists fight music piracy.
Mziiki launched in Kenya on Thursday and also aims to be the best.