MDUNDO TO PAY SH100 MILLION TO RIGHTS HOLDERS

Mdundo.com, one of the leading music services companies in Kenya, has turned 10 years after years of transformation. The company provides musicians with a real-time dashboard to control and manage their catalog as well as withdraw earnings from the service. Founded in 2012, the service has a strong focus on creating locally relevant solutions to benefit African musicians and the mass-market music consumers.

Founded in 2012, the company sold music on “scratch card vouchers” similar to airtime purchases from corner-shops but later it became a free service funded by advertising sales. The initial advertisers on the service were Airtel, Coca-Cola and Microsoft but today the service works with many pan-African FMCG brands and banks across the continent.

“This is an exciting milestone for Mdundo. Our platform currently has 20.3m monthly active users across Africa with 4.9m in Nigeria, 3.7m in South Africa, 2.8m in Kenya and 2.4m in Tanzania. More than 100,000 African musicians have created an account onMdundo.com. The accounts allow artists to manage and control their catalog and withdraw earned royalties. Mdundo has made payouts of Ksh100,000,000 to African rights holders in the last 10 years.” Says Mdundo CEO, Mr. Martin Nielsen.

Mdundo is expecting to pay a minimum of Sh100 million in the current financial year to rights holders. Mr. Nielsen adds: “Our digital music ecosystem has had significant growth over the last 10 years. Music partnerships has provided Mdundo’s premium product to 150m customers through MTN Nigeria, MTN Ghana, Vodacom Tanzania and MTN Airtel. We have also been able to partner with leading African record labels such as Mavin Records, Africori, emPawa, MAD, Slide Digital, Zeze Africa, Tamasha Records, CCA, Lynx, Entertainment, Black Market Records and Kings Music. Mdundo also has licensing agreements with leading global record labels which include Warner Music Group, Universal Music and Believe Digital.”

The company was in September 2020 listed on the Nasdaq First North stock exchange in Copenhagen and is aiming to get 50m monthly active users as well as a positive EBITDA (earnings before taxes, depreciation and amortization) by 2025. “The company’s focus is to deliver a locally relevant music service for the mass-market across Africa with a geographical focus on Kenya, Tanzania, Nigeria, Ghana and South Africa,” Nielsen concludes.