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In Africa there are limited avenues tomarketand publish music. Currently musicians make their moneyfromconcerts, personal appearances, and advertisements. They donotmake money off the songs they release. Songs are typicallyreleasedonline on Youtube and, once popular, the musicians usethose songsin concerts and product endorsement ads. Musicians mayrelease a CDperiodically however there is not a large market forthis becausethe music is often pirated. One person will buy a CDthen makethousands of copies at home and sell them for a cheaperprice inthe local market. This means that African musicians are notable tocapitalize from royalties from their songs.
The answer to the problem of not receiving royaltiesfromdownloaded/pirated songs that has developed in the USA istheformation of online warehouses to download songs legally suchasiTunes by Apple. A purely online outlet for selling songs intheAfrican market would have a very limited market and would notreachthe majority of the population due to sparse and expensiveinternetaccess.
One technology that has thrived in Africa is the mobilephone.Mobile phones in Africa are unlocked phones that arepurchased instores or kiosks. Airtime is purchased by the minutefrom smallkiosks or individuals that walk the streets with vestswearing themobile provider’s logo.
In general African countries have poor infrastructures andthemajority of the geographic area was never supplied withwiredtelephone service. In the same light, we can make aneducatedassumption that the majority of the African population willnothave access to high speed internet in the near future unlessthereare strides made in wireless internet services.
With the problem of musicians missing out on royalties fromtheirmusic and the understanding of how mobile devices have spreadwehave developed an idea to bring the most recent popular musictothe masses while providing musicians with their due royalties.Thiswill be done through a combination of an online music warehouseandcorresponding cell phone application called AfroNotes and asmallinexpensive Mp3 player with proprietary software calledtheAfroStick.
AfroNotes is an online music warehouse that will stream themostpopular music in addition to allowing music to be downloaded toanindividual’s computer. The music will be able to be downloadedbutonly played through the AfroNotes software and will not be abletobe shared from computer to computer. AfroNotes would reachpeoplein the large metropolitan areas with the means to affordcomputersand internet access. Afronotes corresponding cell phoneapplicationwould also reach individuals who want to stream anddownload thepost popular music via their cell phones using wifiaccess.
In order to reach the population that does not have internetaccesswe plan to release the AfroStick. The Afrostick is anaffordableMp3 player with proprietary software. After purchasingthe Mp3player the owner can visit stationary kiosks or mobilekiosks anddownload individual songs or the entire set of newreleases for themonth.

Music will be streamed for free on the website but if apersonwants to listen to or download specific music they musteither paya monthly subscription or pay per song.