Kenyan music streaming startup Mdundo is expanding organically across Africa, adding artists from the likes of South Africa, Ghana, Nigeria, Uganda and Zambia in the past few months.
Launched in Kenya in 2012 by 88mph, Mdundo expanded to Tanzania in 2013 after earning US$125,000 in follow-on funding.
Chief executive officer (CEO) Martin Nielsen told Disrupt Africa the startup was expanding but was not planning to take on any more staff, with it possible to scale through its current setup and tailor information through emails and social media to artists outside of Kenya.
“The service was build for Africa and we have always been trying to reach musicians and fans from across the continent,” he said.
“In the past 3-4 months we’ve been experiencing an increasing interest from Nigeria, South Africa, Ghana, Uganda and Zambia, and a few hundred musicians from those countries have signed up and uploaded their music to our service. It is therefore a natural step for our team to spend more resources on those regions.”
Mdundo now has artists signed up from Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda, Nigeria, South Africa, Zambia, Ghana, Malawi, South Sudan, Congo, Ivory Coast, Cameroon, Namibia, Guinea-Bissau, Rwanda, Mozambique, Angola and Swaziland, though all operations take place in Kenya.
Disrupt Africa reported last month Mdundo had said Tanzanian artists waiting to be paid were still without their royalties due to errors made by its local agent in the country – which the agent denied – and the refusal of some artists to refund cash paid in error.
Nielsen said this had now been resolved, through Mdundo paying the artists twice as a sum of money still remains in Tanzania and the company has not been able to recover it.
2 Comments
That’s great, we congratulate mdundo.com team. But how would I edit the active songs???