What a fun way to end the Day 1 of the Mobile Web West Africa 2012 event. The session titled Mobile & Music – The Perfect Combination had Obi Asika (Chairman & CEO Storm 360) talk about the the local content – referring to music, artist, record labels, music publishers, etc. He did spend time on IP regulations and copyright laws. 99.9% of artists in the world do not understand copyright, so artists (and managers) have to look for knowledge about IP Protection. He also stressed on the need for re-evaluate revenue models, as artist should start to look at tour and licensing as a means of raising revenue.
Obi Asika closed with “The issues of rights are licensing is critical to monetization” before Sami Leino (COO Spinlet) took over to talk about the product Spinlet. Aside buying, playing and sharing features that users get to enjoy , Spinlet creates fan connect and legal revenue for the artiste. The affordability for users (able to stream music at N500 per month), coupled with good reviews (some from Technissivity and Techloy representatives who tested the app live at the event) about the user experience will play a big role in the adoption. You do have to wait till the first week in May to get your hands on the service though.
Ventures African recently did an interview with Eric Idiahi (CEO, Spinlet) and the big question was “Does Spinlet Have What It Takes To Be Africa’s iTunes?”. Well we know we’ve got Gbedu.FM aspiring to be Africa’s Spotify. Nonetheless, it shouldn’t be overlooked that players in this space include: Spinlet, Gbedu.FM (mobile version), iROKING, GbeduMobile, and many more still on local host. However, we can appreciate is that these players bring revolution (and perhaps innovation) to music distribution.
What to expect from Spinlet later on this year? Web Extentions, Facebook Connect in Q3 and Q4. Looks like the ‘traditional’ web and social media (and that’s Facebook) cannot be overlooked in the big picture.
What you may have missed:
- Read the Session 1 Recap: Mobile Web and Application Opportunity
- Read the Session 2 Recap: The Importance of Local and User Generated Content.
- You can also get real time updates via Twitter updates – @oTeKbits.
- You can read up blog updates from our MWWA2012 blog channel.
Do you know Hotels and Utility buildings like banks, cafe, etc, get license to play music?
