Mdundo Commits To Pay Ksh 100 Million To Rights In Holders

Mdundo.com has turned 10 years after years of transformation into a leading music services company. 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 mass-market music consumers.

Mdundo.com was founded in 2012 when 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.

Mdundo’s CEO, Mr. Martin Nielsen says: “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 KES 100,000,000 to African rights holders in the last 10 years.

Mdundo is expecting to pay a minimum of KES 100,000,000 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 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.

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,” Mr. Nielsen concludes.