In the past years, Nigerian artistes have lamented bitterly about the issue of piracy, and how it had been hurting their profit margin. Unlike before, with the advent of social media and music streaming, artistes have now found innovative ways, in which they can earn royalties and market their songs.
Amongst the streaming services changing the narrative of music consumption, is Audiomack. In this interview with eelive.ng, Charlotte Bwana, the Manager, Business Development and Media Partnerships (Africa) of the company, spoke about what Nigerian artistes need to understand about streaming, and how artistes can take advantage of streaming.
Kindly describe what the Audiomack brand represents…
We are a music streaming and discovery platform that allows artiste and record labels, and distributors to share unlimited music. Ou platform also allow fans to discover new songs, new artistes, new albums, new mix-tapes; we are also known for bringing out something I will call music democratisation.
What are the goals of Audiomack and how have you been able to maintain your philosophy in the Nigeria music space?
Okay, as I said, we pride ourselves in democratizing music and this is by the flexibility to people and connectivity right. Audiomack is the number one downloading-streaming apps in Nigeria, number two general free app in Nigeria after WhatsApp. We have seen growth in Nigeria and we continue to see growth and it’s because of our free service model, which is accessible to everyone, and it gives artistes the opportunity to meet 100% of their fan base. So for us, what we have successfully brought into the Nigerian scene is that anybody can access the Audiomack, anybody can download on the Audiomack, anybody can listen to your music as an artiste, and have access to your music because it is free. Although, we have a free time category and a premium service category. We have been able to come this far in Nigeria because we aim at reaching 100% of artistes’ fan base without limiting them because they have to pay a certain amount of money to listen to music.
I also observed that a lot of people do not know how streaming works here. What do you think artistes need to know about streaming, especially pertaining to Audiomack operations?
Essentially, music streaming is a new technology that we are currently experiencing as a whole and as a continent. People just need to kind of understand that your fans are not going to look for your music. You have to bring the music to them and that it’s what streaming does; it brings music to your fans. More like going to where they are and making it easy and comfortable for them to get your music. That’s what streaming is about.
Now, artistes can use their statistics to build their fan base easily when it comes to that. Step one is just as simple as sharing the music, share the link, send to your family –oh hey! my music is on Audiomack, here’s the link . They will click on the link and listen to it put there like on send your family “you can use it on email blog, you can use instagram you can use twitter. These are yourcommunity, these are where your fan base are going to be talking to you. So, engage and interact with them on Twitter or on Instagram or on Facebook.
Then, Audiomack for example, we have a dashboard, a very powerful artiste dashboard that shows you your statistics and it gives you advance-in-depth statistics on how your content is being consumed and it is completely free, so you do not need an account. You can see an engagement and regular data on how fans are interacting with your releases. From which country, how many people are following you, how many people are favouriting your songs, how many people are sharing your songs, and the many places you’ve been heard. On our app, as an artiste, you can see what country that your song is being listened to and so when you look at that, you can now translate it to your case.
For instance, if you are a Nigerian, and your song is being listened to in Tanzania a lot, it means that there are a lot of people in Tanzania that are enjoying your music. So find yourself to get in Tanzania, find yourself a way to get from a Tanzania artiste, find a way to give to people who are already listening to, who are enjoying your music and loving your music, find yourself a way to gain more fans and maintain the fans that you already have.
You’ve been making mention of “free free free” and that people can access your platform without paying any money and the fact that people earn money without having to pay. How is Audiomack driving revenue to its business?
This is information we don’t put out there but generally, advertisements from brands and corporate bodies are part of the channels we make earnings from. Our database is mind-blowing, and as a result corporate bodies find it interesting to partner and do business with us.
You have spoken about how artiste can earn and how they can drive figures as far as streaming is concerned on the app. But what is the process of getting the royalties accrued from streaming?
That depends on the artistes involved. If you are using a distributor or a content aggregator, they always come to collect your royalties for you. And if you are an independent artiste, then your team collects your royalties for you. But most of the time, artistes use content aggregators. Aggregators generally collect money for them.
You recently opened an office in Lagos. Why was that?
For us, the way we see it, Nigeria is the sixth biggest country in the world and when you look at majority of the English speaking countries, Nigeria is second after the United States and since most of the artistes that we have are English speaking, it makes practical sense to see Nigeria as a growth opportunity for Audiomack and for all artiste who upload their music on the platform. Here in Africa, we would see that Nigeria is such an entertainment powerhouse in a circulated continent. This is not to discredit other part of the continents that I think are doing well. We basically just think it will make sense to have a headoffice in Nigeria.
How do you think artistes can take advantage of this opportunity?
It’s just for them knowing we are here. We are open to work with anybody who is open to working with us. We want to work with everybody .So you know our doors are open when you have ideas and if Audiomack can support you. Nigeria is home to so many potential artistes, that’s if everybody else and the rest of the world
fan base without limiting them because they have to pay a certain amount of money to listen to music.