Safaricom will in July launch a music platform.

Artistes will be able to upload their songs to the platform and make money when users stream or download their music.

Whatever the name the new service will be given, we are yet to know. But what I firmly believe is that this is a step in the right direction. Music shouldn’t be free. It is the hard creative work of an individual or group of individuals and they should be rewarded their fair share every time we listen to their work.

And Kenya has a lot of artistes. Very big artistes who don’t make as much as they should, And good and talented but unknown musicians who never get airplay and can’t enjoy growth as the platforms that currently exist are not favorable to them.

Most music platforms that exist just don’t get everything right. We have Mdundo.com who are trying so well but I have some issues you can read from this thread. We have Mziiki which I once considered the future of African music but never continued to use their service. We also have other international platforms like Apple Music, Spotify (who’ve refused to expand) and Deezer (which I currently use). How will Safaricom Music compare to them?

Upon hearing of Safaricom music, the first questions that came to mind were:

Will Safaricom Music be able to get everything right? Will we have playlists and trending music? And new artistes? Something cool and exciting.
Will they offer a better UI than Mdundo and Mziiki?
Will the artistes really make money?
Will it be a local service only or will we find international artistes too?
How much will a subscription cost? We pay about $5 a month for Apple Music/Deezer subscription.
How will the service expand?
Will anyone be interested? How will they make us interested?

Let’s wait and see.