JUST A YEAR after Swedish audio streaming and media services provider, Spotify, announced Rwanda among its 80+ new markets, Audiomack is also showing interest in the Rwandan . music as the streaming platform continues to closely monitor the way local artistes’ music continues to attract the attention of music lovers across the East African region, in Africa and worldwide. The streaming media recently appointed Eloi Mugabe as their country representative tasking him to raise awareness among Rwandan artistes to stream their music on the platform for them to grow their international fan base. Mugabe’s appointment comes as a huge boost in growing the population that consumes Rwandan music via Audiomack. Mugabe admits Rwandan music gathers a small number of streams due to the fact that the country has a small population but believes more efforts are needed to encourage local artistes to use the streaming platform for them to ensure their music reaches a bigger population across the globe. “I was tasked to boost the use of Audiomack in Rwanda because local artistes still pay little attention to the role of using the streaming media in not only growing their population but also their resources from streams,” Mugabe told The New Times. Audiomack is among the top-ranked streaming services in Africa, especially in Nigeria, Senegal, Ghana, Kenya and Tanzania among other countries and targeting Rwandan music should, according to Mugabe, be an opportunity that artistes should welcome with both hands if they are to grow their music financially and reach. “There is a reason they wanted to grow their streaming coverage in Rwanda and it’s an opportunity they should not miss as long as I am here to show them how best they can use the platform. The numbers are growing but we want artistes to push more to grow their streams on the platform,” he added. During his time as the country representative, Mugabe targets to work hand-in-hand with artistes and show them how monetize their accounts to make sure they get revenues from their music. He is aware that the market is now wide open compared to the past thanks to the music that local artistes are doing and the coverage it is getting not only in the country but also in the region and Africa in general. “They are interested in Rwandan music market because they not only want to be among the first on the market but because they can’t ignore how our music is growing with an incredible pace and it’s hard to for them to deny the potential that everyone sees Rwandan music is showing to penetrate the international scene,” he explained. The benefits With artistes still struggling with distribution of their music to the international audience, Mugabe will be working hand in hand with artistes to ensure the verification of their music, helping them to pitch the music that can get exposure on audiomack’s verified playlist which normally boosts their music discovery not only in the region but worldwide. He also wants to make sure that artistes have all rights on their music work by helping them upload their music on their account, as well as take them down from other accounts. By successfully achieving this, Mugabe is positive that “Audiomack will not only connect artistes with their supporters but also help them raise revenues from their music because “it has tools that can help them benefit from their music.” Fact file In February 2021, Billboard announced Audiomack streaming data would begin informing some of its flagship charts, including the Hot 100, the Billboard 200, and the Global 200. In March 2021, Fast Company magazine named Audiomack one of the 10 most innovative companies in music. With this reputation, he is positive that Rwandan music has potential to penetrate the international market should artistes make good use of music streaming platforms of Audiomack’s calibre.
