Thanks to online streaming platforms such as Spotify, YouTube, Apple Music, SoundCloud and Audio Mack, musicians and content creators can now distribute their productions to a wider global audience. Eloi Muhoranimana, better known by his stage name Eloi El, is one of the musicians in Rwanda benefitting from the establishment of different streaming platforms in Rwanda like Spotify. The electronic dance music player said that he is earning benefits from the platform, which is available in 178 markets worldwide. Last year, Eloi El accumulated seven million streams on Spotify, making him arguably one of the most-streamed Rwandan musicians. He told The New Times that Spotify avails his music to areas that he doesn’t even know, and by getting more views and streams, the earnings increase as well. He added that local musicians can also gain access to new markets and more commercial deals. Before the introduction of online streaming, Rwandan music was only distributed on CDS, cassettes, TVs and airwaves. However, Confy, an upcoming artiste believes that these methods were hard for many to access. He revealed that users of apple music and Spotify pay subscriptions to have access to songs. From that, musicians also get paid by the platforms. “It is also easy to be recognised internationally through online streaming platforms, where someone from South America or Asia can be introduced to my music without necessarily visiting Rwanda,” he added. Real name Confiance Munyaneza, Confy has so far secured 50, 000 streams for his recent release ‘Panga’ on AudioMack, and more than 400, 000 views on YouTube. Davis D, one of the leading artistes in Rwanda, also believes that online streaming platforms made it easy to discover songs through searching or recording them. Prevoiusly, one could hear a song and take days to get the name of the song. However, currently people can type lyrics on any streaming platform and get all the information about the song within less than a minute. “Rwandan music is now played in pubs and clubs, something that I also credit to the merging of streaming platforms. DJs are able to search music on YouTube or Apple Music and play them immediately, without necessarily buying CDs,” he said. For Davis D, who has millions views on different platforms, YouTube provides different opportunities including revenue which many artistes need to pursue their career. 28-year-old Ivan Rwibutso, founder of Famemix, a local streaming online platform, told The New Times that the new methods of distributing music are one of the main reasons behind the rise of the Rwandan music industry. Rwibutso said that his platform helps artistes to link for collaborations, and make the buying and selling of music easy, because it gives musicians an opportunity to set prices for their tracks. The old method of using CDs and cassettes in distribution of music was not sustainable, because they had high chances of being destroyed, according to Rwibutso. “The good thing about online streaming, it doesn’t expire or reduce the quality of songs,” said Rwibutso. In addition he said that it promoted copyrights, where artistes have the rights to give their products ownership and secure them from duplication. Christine Gakuba, a music lover who uses Spotify to stream music, says that this platform and others made it easy for her to download music and keep them on her phone so that she can play while offline. In addition, she said, many upcoming artistes are being discovered on platforms like SoundCloud, which she believes is one of the contributing factors to the rise of many young talents in Rwanda.
