Streemio unveils Ghana mobile music streaming, artistes to earn 10% royalty

Streemio, a music streaming service delivered to mobile phones has been officially launched in Accra December 13, 2011.

Operators of the mobile streaming service, Streemio Technologies – a Ghanaian-owned software application firm, say the service will be delivered via a mobile application that can be downloaded for free on most mobile devices with internet capability and decent multimedia features.

Launching the service, CEO of Streemio Technologies, Mr Samuel Owusu Darko said per the agreement entered into with the Interim Copyright Management Team (ICMT) – a royalty collection body and the Attorney General, Ghanaian artistes whose music are used by listeners will get 10% royalty share of the gross revenue generated by the service.

The royalties will be shared with the use of data base which automatically calculates the songs listened to by users within a certain period of time.

Due to copyrights laws, Mr Darko told the press that songs on Streemio can only be listened to and accessed by users but can not be downloaded because they don’t own the rights.

Mr Carlos Sakyi, a member of the ICMT and also a copyright advocate, was happy that officials of Streemio have gone through the legal process to start such an innovative product for the entertainment industry. He called upon all to support the initiative taken by the Streemio.

Mr Sakyi, however, bemoaned the fact that radio stations in the country do not log or keep data when playing music for public consumption.

Mr Francis Ahose, Technical Director at Streemio, took journalists through the process of experiencing the service.

Mr Ahose said the application when activated, will allow users to be their own Disc Jockey (DJ) thereby allowing a person to create and customize his/her own playlist of songs, share playlists with friends, search for new music and discover concerts of favourite artistes. it has all types of music genres.

Officials confirmed that Streemio will be activated on December 23, 2011 and it is planning a party to mark the activation. The service targeted audience ranges from 13-34 years old, officials say.

According to them, they are ready to provide authentic data to radio and television stations, music award organisers etc as to which music is popular in the country.

By Ekow Quandzie