Music In Africa puts musicians first with massive portal revamp

The Music In Africa Foundation (MIAF) is pleased to announce the launch of its fully revamped portal for the African music sector, www.musicinafrica.net, which goes live on Africa Day (25 May 2017).

The revamp introduces a completely new platform with significant improvements in functionality, design and performance. While upholding the Foundation’s vision to be a leading source of information and exchange in the sector, the site now offers a wide array of new features designed to further the careers of musicians – the website’s core demographic.

Key improvements include a tool that allows musicians to sync their music from legal music and video streaming sites, a feature for fans and businesses to book artists, music and video streaming, statistics, a tool to discover opportunities such as jobs, funding, gigs and services, an intuitive messaging functionality to engage with industry players, an Electronic Press Kit (EPK) generator, and other useful functionalities. The service is available for free in English and French.

MIAF director Eddie Hatitye said: “We are excited to launch this platform on such an important day for Africa. While the new website opens an endless list of exciting possibilities, the Foundation will continue to produce authoritative content that has made Music In Africa the biggest and most reliable information platform for the African music sector in just under three years.”

The first Music In Africa portal was launched in December 2014 and since then 26 African countries have been covered as part of a strategy to report on the whole African continent by 2022. More than 13 000 music professionals and 120 contributors are registered on the platform.

Syncing and EPKs

Musicians can now sync all their music and videos via an aggregated Music In Africa profile. This means that they can promote their content from reputable third-party sites such as YouTube, SoundCloud and Deezer without having to manually add it to Music In Africa. Once they’ve set up their profiles, the website will generate an EPK at a click of a button. Musicians can then choose the videos, songs and pictures they want to feature in their EPK and send it out to event organisers, promoters and record labels.

Music streaming

Visitors to the Music In Africa website will get to discover new music from across the African continent. With the music player always visible at the bottom of whichever Music In Africa page the user is browsing, and with music being synced when content is added to third-party sites, the website has effectively become the most comprehensive portal of discovery for African music.

Statistics, tagging and artist booking

To help musicians monitor and manage their promotional efforts, Music In Africa offers statistics that show users how much traffic (plays) the website is generating for them, as well as how fans are engaging with their content. Additionally, the new website features a tagging system that allows users to share and find opportunities. Musicians also have access to the all-improved artist booking tool, which lets them set their preferences to receive booking requests.

About Music In Africa

Music In Africa is owned and governed by the Music In Africa Foundation, a registered non-profit organisation comprising members in different parts of Africa. The Music In Africa project started in 2011 as an initiative by Siemens Stiftung and the Goethe-Institut, together with partners from across Africa. The Music In Africa Foundation has offices in Dakar, Nairobi, Kinshasa, Lagos and Johannesburg.

The relaunch of the musicinafrica.net platform also coincides with the opening of the Foundation’s new head office in Johannesburg on Africa Day.