Local jingles go online

By Siyabonga Africa, ITWeb junior journalist

Johannesburg, 22 Sep 2008

Internet Solutions (IS) is developing an online music portal that will allow South African musicians to sell their music to overseas companies. The Internet innovation centre hopes sales will benefit from the weak rand.

"We think overseas companies will be happy to buy songs when the exchange rate is more than R8 to the dollar," says IS Labs founder Ronnie Apteker.

Apteker explains the portal, Sonicspaza, will be a business-to-business Web site aimed at breaking into the international market and exposing local artists to the rest of the world. IS Labs will represent independent musicians non-exclusively and is building its own production studios where music will be developed.

IS Labs says it is working on a percentage split with its artists for each download. Apteker says artists will be able to sell the rights to their music repeatedly and interested companies can preview the music before buying. IS says it will sign a licence agreement with the National Organisation for Rights Reproduction in Music in Southern Africa (Norm) in order to sell music online.

IS Labs claims the idea of Sonicspaza became viable with the development of e-commerce in SA. Apteker explains that e-commerce is dependent on the age of the country`s Internet market. "As a country, we are getting to a point where e-commerce is an accepted means of purchasing goods such as music."

Music moves online

Norm says digital downloads have taken over the music industry. Norm digital rights manager Collen Mampane says it charges 7.5% per download on the consumer price. "We charge that fee to every company that sells music online."

World Wide Worx MD Arthur Goldstuck believes Sonicspaza could be the first South African online music service to leverage the changing trends in music consumption and music licensing. He adds that once it becomes prominent in the industry, it`s likely to show the way for a new generation of e-commerce businesses.

Goldstuck agrees with Apteker`s view on e-commerce and points to World Wide Worx`s research. The organisation found that numerous retail and financial online services had failed in the early 2000s during the dot-com boom.

In 2001, 354 000 Internet subscribers out of a total of 2.8 million in SA had been online for more than five years.

"By 2006, those 2.8 million people had been online for five years or more and were part of a rapid rise in the number of people moving up the experience curve. As a result, we saw a sudden and dramatic increase in the rate of growth of online retail in 2006. We expect to see that rate maintained through to 2010," says Goldstuck.