Recently y’all heard Jay-Z started a VC company, I know many of you wondered why, but guess what? Tech is the only thing to invest in haha! Yeah, we love ourselves, ok no! but seriously, A couple of musicians in the west are investing in Technology, a report from Techcrunch mid last month had a list of Rockstars Investing in startups and the details are quite amazing.
The wind seems to be blowing into Africa also, well before we get into Wasafi let us hitch back and know who in Africa is into Tech as a rockstar ( FYI they aren’t so many ):
- DON JAZZY – I know, a few know about this, but earlier this year Don and Dele Odufuye the CEO of Tsaboin, collaborated and they named it Flobyt.which is a Wifi that’s free, fast, reliable and easy to use wifi service across our partner locations including; eateries, parks, taxis, buses, restaurants, cafés and much more. Flobyt Wifi is designed to replicate your ‘at home’ wifi experience when you’re out and about. Checking emails, uploading photos to Facebook, funny Instagram videos – whatever you’re into, surf it for free on your smartphone or tablet. you can check his Instagram Post here.
Damn! there is no more but we hope since the air is now in Africa it will be embraced you know. So back to Wasafi , Yes we are all familiar with the term since we listen to music, Wasafi is a record label by Diamond from Tanzania, actually one among the best labels in Africa.
Actually, I think this a game changer a major one, should we brand it African Itunes, Wasafi aims to curb piracy as for one matter of fact and secondly it’s not only a music platform, we think it will bring unity in Entertainment and finally It’s tryna make music access legal in Africa.
Wasafi actually has a great User Interface, nice concept: Wasafi lets you create an account by registration and social login, which is a nice approach to avoid filling details. Upon landing you are met by colourful music covers and a simple menu that outline everything you may need on the site from trending songs, artists, albums and also which songs have been downloaded at most, Actually, this could be used for artist Demographics on the other hand you know.
Upon load on the Url, you will realise its a https, which means your information is secure on the server and that’s not only what it is, Wasafi is actually an e-commerce platform, which means transactions are done online. Wasafi lets you preview a song for a couple of seconds perhaps minutes, but not the whole song, Bingo! on that part wasafi, After gaining interest in the song you can purchase for as little as Tsh 300 which is USD 0.1 on all the songs, we think Wasafi already knows piracy is out here hence the cheap price or? That one is still leaving us in a wonder dilemma, It’s pricing like google ads per click! ha!, Purchases can be made through Safaricom’s Mpesa, Tigo, Airtel money, Vodacom, Mtn and the very usual culprits of payment Visa and Mastercards, and you can actually credit your Wasafi account, check your downloads and know your credit balance.
This is actually a game changer let us not be hesitant to say this, but Music startups can actually be a thing to try out. Here is a list of startups that have it right with African musicians.
