The lure to create music streaming services focused on Africa continues to grow stronger. The latest startup to attempt one is Orin, a premium on-demand music service for mobile.
Orin is starting out as a free service. But not forever. The music startup plans to monetise via a subscription model. Listeners can stream full albums of their favourite artists for $3 a month. They can also elect to buy the music from iTunes. Other features include a daily chart of curated African music, badge for users that unlock achievements and the ability to view music videos from inside the app.
According to Finbarrs Oketunji, London-based developer and co-founder of the service, “we are making African music more accessible”.
We have certainly heard that before. Orin is wading into a crowded pond that is teeming with all kinds of big and little fish. Spinlet, iRoking, Simfy Africa and even Samsung are all trying to figure out the question of distributing digital music to an African audience. The problems are myriad — music rights licensing, piracy, a culture of free, and the nascence of electronic payment infrastructure, to mention a few.
None of these have deterred Finbarrs Oketunji, however, who says he will devote 100% of his time to this venture and is in the process of building a team to prosecute the personally funded undertaking.
Orin is available and free to download on iOS devices.
