Tapping Into the Digital Market

The trend of selling music on various digital platforms is one that the music industry has had to embrace. After all, in today’s world, almost everything happens online.

unpacks the benefits and challenges of the business of streaming and selling music digitally in the Namibian context.

Selling music online locally is a relatively new progression as a lot of artists still opt to do things the traditional way. Often when they do put their music online, it streams for free. On the other hand, there are also many Namibian musicians who are embracing technological changes and selling their music on various platforms digitally.

Some of the most popular websites to promote or sell music online include the Namibia Music website, iTunes, Spotify, YouTube and SoundCloud.

Singer ML is one of the artists in Namibia whose latest album is available for purchase and streaming on digital platforms including iTunes and Spotify. Commenting on the local online market, ML shared that while the market is relatively young, it is steadily growing. ML said that young people in Namibia are getting more familiar with purchasing music online as it is convenient.

“When I view my statistics on iTunes for example, I notice that most of the people who buy and stream my music are from Namibia and South Africa so the market is there,” said ML.

ML attributes her nomination in the Afrika Music Industry Awards to her strong online presence and encourages artists to be more active on social media as this is one way international music agencies pick up your music and information about you as an artist.

Selling music digitally comes with its benefits for both the musicians and their fans. For musicians, having their music online enables them to reach many more people and they do not have to physically cross borders to take their music to the world.

“The advantage of selling music digitally is that anybody anywhere in the world can pick up your music,” said ML.

Co-founder of Namibia Music website Yemen Saunders Jumah says selling music digitally makes it much easier for music fans to purchase music as it is mostly played on their cellphones and personal computers.

Jumah says at the moment the only album available for purchase on the site is by the Gazza Music Production (GMP) signee Jeiyo.

“Very soon every artist will be able to sell their music on our website depending on the agreement between the artist and us,” he said, adding that at the moment the platform focuses on singles and mixtapes. The songs available for free are songs submitted by artists for promotional purposes.

ML says one of the drawbacks is some artists do not know how to sell their music online. She said that a lot of artists have good songs but their music is not even online which is one of the biggest markets for music. Another challenge, she says, is that some music fans are sceptical about purchasing music online as sites require them to link their bank details to the accounts they create – a process not many trust.

Finance is another struggle that artists encounter when they venture into the digital market as it requires them to have enough money to successfully run digital distribution.

ML appealed to artists to do their research and choose to sell their music on platforms that are legitimate and will not rob them but instead benefit them and the Namibian music industry as a whole.

She recommended iTunes as the best platform because of its popularity but also encouraged Namibian artists to make use of the Namibia Music website to promote and sell their music.

“Let us empower our local platforms and make them lucrative for all of us,” she said. In the Namibian context, ML also shared that YouTube and SoundCloud are some of the most powerful tools for artists to use to promote their music and to reach the masses.

“A lot of people tend to listen to YouTube when they are in their offices and YouTube allows you to load your music in terms of audio so artists should exploit this market,” she said. For upcoming artists, ML suggested SoundCloud as the best platform, although it does not necessarily pay.

“SoundCloud really works well for upcoming artists as it is easy for fans to access music on it. It is a big community that has given a lot of artists their breakthrough,” said ML.

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