Vodacom Tanzania has announced a new partnership with African music distributing and streaming service Mdundo in a move that will take music bundle for Vodacom’s subscribers to another level, giving subscribers’ unimpeded access to Mdundo’s premium service as well as a bevy of curated mixes from some of Tanzania’s top DJs.

Speaking on the development, Vodacom Tanzania’s head of Value Added Services, Nguvu Kamando, said  that “Instead of struggling and moving from one platform to another, we as a digital valuing company, saw the importance of creating one bundle which will include all music genres, that’s why we also decided to partner with Mdundo.com”.

This partnership will go a long way in expanding the reach of Mdundo, Kenyan music distribution and streaming service to be a one-stop solution for music lovers in Africa to enjoy free, unlimited access to their favourite songs and artists.  

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Founded in 2012, the Kenyan music monetization platform, co-founded by a Danish native Martin Nielsen, is currently operating in 10 countries across the continent with hopes to continue expansion throughout Africa.

Launching officially in 2013 the company has been on a steady incline since, having partnered with big names such as Airtel and Microsoft in the past. CEO and co-founder Nielsen says that growing the business hasn’t been too difficult since the Kenyan music industry lacked a solid online distribution and monetisation platform.

Mdundo, meaning “beat” in Swahili, offers listeners two subscription options. Namely, a free version, and a “premium” paid version at the value of about $1.09 monthly. Though Mdundo makes most of its income via advertising. The company has a strong focus on making it simple for new artists to join the platform and sell their music. Though, as Nielsen says, it has not always been so easy to find the right payment methods to integrate into their service.

“Trying to start a streaming service in Kenya was not easy, especially in finding ways to bill customers. M-Pesa, the mobile payment service, was pervasive at the time the company started and the hope was that it could be used as a mode of payment for Mdundo’s services,” Nielsen is quoted by JMExclusives.

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“The billing options were few if you looked continent-wide,” Nielsen says. “It is only recently that we got the M-Pesa push SDK (software development kit). M-Pesa has not been focusing online but on retail merchants, and if you go outside of Kenya there are even fewer options.”

Kelechi Deca

Kelechi Deca has over two decades of media experience, he has traveled to over 77 countries reporting on multilateral development institutions, international business, trade, travels, culture, and diplomacy. He is also a petrol head with in-depth knowledge of automobiles and the auto industry