The first music industry fair in French-speaking Africa was held at the end of the week in Abidjan. For two days (Thursday and Friday), music professionals discussed and shared their experience about music streaming platforms and their impact on this sector. The opportunity for them to take stock of the contribution of this mode of music consumption, which attracts young people in particular.
With our correspondent in Abidjan, Bineta Diagne
Launched less than six months ago in Côte d’Ivoire, the BoomPlay streaming platform offers free nearly 80 million titles ranging from zouglou to offbeat cut and rap.
Paola Ndengue, director of BoomPlay in Côte d’Ivoire, notes a craze among young men aged 18 to 34: ” Our approach is really to push both the most famous artists but also and above all to be a kind of place where we can discover artists. The numbers 1 for now are VDA, a zouglou duo. We can also talk about Roseline Layo who was one of our big, big stars this year. Of course, rap, once again with Didi B who is about to cross 10 million streams “.
Among the artists propelled by this virtual showcase is the Ivorian rapper Suspect 95. This young man is well aware of it: the visibility of an artist now goes through digital: “ It gives me exposure since I no longer have to go through the traditional distribution networks where there are complications to get my CD to such a store or even to such a country. There, now, I would say that it is on the internet. »
Only the exorbitant cost of mobile data in Africa and the relatively limited access to banks are two major handicaps to the consumption of online music, as the artist A’Salfo notes: “ Not everyone has a credit card. However, it is the most practical means of payment. Many people want to go download but few are those who can “.
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Through this fair, artists and producers find out about their rights because, for the moment, the majority of artists are struggling to earn adequate income from streaming.