Mdundo says it has made KES 100M in payments to African artists in the last 10 years

Kenyan music steaming platform Mdundo made payouts of KES 100M to African rights holders in the last 10 years. The company revealed this today as it marked its 10-year anniversary announcing that it’s also expecting to pay the same figure to artists in the current financial year.

Mdundo.com is one of Africa’s leading music services with 20.3m monthly active users across Kenya, Tanzania, Nigeria, Ghana, and South Africa.  The company provides musicians with a real-time dashboard to control and manage their catalog as well as withdraw earnings from the service.

Mdundo was founded in 2012 where it 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.

“Our digital music ecosystem has had significant growth over the last 10 years. Music partnerships have provided Mdundo’s premium product to 150m customers of 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 licensing agreements with leading global record labels which include Warner Music Group, Universal Music and Believe Digital.” Mdundo’s CEO, Mr. Martin Nielsen says.

According to the CEO more than 100,000 African musicians have created an account onMdundo.com.

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.

In June this year, the company announced that it has recorded 290% user growth since the 2020 IPO. It’s user base currently stands at 4.9m in Nigeria, 3.7m in South Africa, 2.8m in Kenya and 2.4m in Tanzania.

“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,” Mr. Nielsen says.

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