Donlu Africa changing the game
10 August 2018 | Art and Entertainment
Donlu Africa, is a locally made is an online platform that allows music lovers from all over the globe to have a way to conveniently purchase Namibian music.
The founder, Llewellyn Adams, says the motivation to create the app came from seeing how international Namibian music lovers had trouble sourcing the music. He says the lack of a site that lives up to the international standards of streaming; purchasing and downloading local content started the humble dream of Donlu Africa. The app has been working since last year and has been running smoothly.
“We are trying to live up to the international market and at the same time make sure that it is user-friendly for a Namibian user. At the end of the day, we can't look past the fact that there are Africans who are computer illiterate so we have to cater for them too,” said Adams.
The app can be utilised by a user who buys, downloads or streams the music and the artist who uploads the content. The different methods of payment for Namibian based users include the PayToday app, normal credit card or PayPal. African users can buy music via MTN, Vodacom mobile money, Airtal or Tigo. Working on being the site with the most convenient banking options, Adams says that he is in talks with local mobile operators to make payments easy. Adams says it gets tricky there is a culture of fear of people handing over their banking details on the internet.
“It's all about educating and creating awareness on the safety on online banking and letting them trust us with their banking details. It's really safe,” he said.
Adams' partner Tasha Mununga says they had an upgrade on the system and since then, they have had close to 50 000 people visit the website. The majority of the traffic is from Namibia with the next in line from Nigeria and Zambia. Business is so great that they get artists from other countries who would like to be featured on the website.
“There are so many local artists who make good music but they don't make money from it. We want to see local artists benefit from their hard work and be able to give them something at least every second month. From every song bought, Donlu Africa takes 15% which is ploughed back into maintenance of the website and the artists take the rest, “said Mununga. Adams urges local artists to exclusively drop their music on Donlu and work together to get local talent heard on international platforms. Currently they have a special going on for the first 500 people to download Oteya and Lioness new song Di Matta and after that it will be available for purchase for N$9.
June Shimuoshili
The founder, Llewellyn Adams, says the motivation to create the app came from seeing how international Namibian music lovers had trouble sourcing the music. He says the lack of a site that lives up to the international standards of streaming; purchasing and downloading local content started the humble dream of Donlu Africa. The app has been working since last year and has been running smoothly.
“We are trying to live up to the international market and at the same time make sure that it is user-friendly for a Namibian user. At the end of the day, we can't look past the fact that there are Africans who are computer illiterate so we have to cater for them too,” said Adams.
The app can be utilised by a user who buys, downloads or streams the music and the artist who uploads the content. The different methods of payment for Namibian based users include the PayToday app, normal credit card or PayPal. African users can buy music via MTN, Vodacom mobile money, Airtal or Tigo. Working on being the site with the most convenient banking options, Adams says that he is in talks with local mobile operators to make payments easy. Adams says it gets tricky there is a culture of fear of people handing over their banking details on the internet.
“It's all about educating and creating awareness on the safety on online banking and letting them trust us with their banking details. It's really safe,” he said.
Adams' partner Tasha Mununga says they had an upgrade on the system and since then, they have had close to 50 000 people visit the website. The majority of the traffic is from Namibia with the next in line from Nigeria and Zambia. Business is so great that they get artists from other countries who would like to be featured on the website.
“There are so many local artists who make good music but they don't make money from it. We want to see local artists benefit from their hard work and be able to give them something at least every second month. From every song bought, Donlu Africa takes 15% which is ploughed back into maintenance of the website and the artists take the rest, “said Mununga. Adams urges local artists to exclusively drop their music on Donlu and work together to get local talent heard on international platforms. Currently they have a special going on for the first 500 people to download Oteya and Lioness new song Di Matta and after that it will be available for purchase for N$9.
June Shimuoshili
Classifieds