Ready for the new African sound? You decide on Africa Unsigned
By Mirjam van den Berg

Tired of listening to those same old tunes? Want to influence what you’re hearing? Then head over to Africa Unsigned, where the new African music is at your fingertips - and you decide what happens next.

Jamaican jamming

It all started with a Jamaican singing to Africa Unsigned co-founder Pim Betist. “I asked him to join Sellaband, which I set up five years ago. Like Africa Unsigned, Sellaband allows artists to record music that is funded by fans.”

“The guy said he didn’t have recording facilities, recorded music or even internet access. That’s when it dawned on me: there’s a huge continent with lots of talent that’s never heard of on a global basis. So I quit Sellaband, which is more geared towards the Western music industry, and started Africa Unsigned.”

Good at music, bad at business

South African band BCUC is one of the 25 artists promoting their music through Africa Unsigned. Singer Jovi: “It is a known fact that musicians don’t make good business people. It’s great to have this opportunity to learn, keep our artistic freedom and reach a new audience.”

Funding your favourite music

Giving the best unsigned African artists a platform to promote their music, and have fans fund the music they like best. That, in short, is Africa Unsigned, which went live at the beginning of this year.

Fans can support artists with a minimum of one dollar, and an artist has six months to collect the $ 10,000 required to start recording an album with a minimum of three tracks. Revenues are equally divided between the artist and supporters.

$10,000 recording budget

$ 10,000 for three tracks might seem expensive, especially when recording in Africa. Yet co-founder Daan Determeijer thinks it’s a reasonable budget. “It’s expensive to record a professional album and do the promotion around it. If in some countries recording costs less, an artist can have more time in the studio.”

Only half of the $ 10,000 goes to the actual recording. A quarter goes to the local promoter, and the remaining $ 2,500 is for Africa Unsigned, who will mainly use the money to run and promote the website and beat the red numbers.

Africa Unsigned vs. MySpace

But why would an artist need Africa Unsigned, when fans can be found quite easily on sites like MySpace and Facebook? “Those sites are mostly about quantity, whereas Africa Unsigned focuses on quality,” explains Pim Betist. “All artists have to go through a strict selection procedure. It’s also quite difficult to promote your music online from Africa. Artists have to go to internet cafes and pay for a pretty slow connection. We’ve tackled that with our promotion teams.”

Musical opposition paper

In their music, BCUC doesn’t shy away from controversial topics. They claim South Africa is still not a free country, and that black as well as white are responsible for that. “Listening to our music is like buying an opposition paper. We offer you a point of view that is different from most things you will hear. That’s why people should invest in our music.”

Although Jovi admits that BCUC’s music may not be the easiest one to understand, he’s confident the band will reach the $ 10,000 mark within six months. “We don’t make pop music, so people might not immediately get used to it. But once they understand our music, they’ll never want to leave without it anymore. Our music is a crave.”

African investment

Should you be on Africa Unsigned?

Do you think your music has what it takes to impress Africa Unsigned’s music panellists like Baaba Maal, Fela Kuti’s drummer Tony Allen and Damon Albarn? Are you from one of the countries Africa Unsigned is already active in? Then get in touch! Talent and potential are the only criteria, no matter what your musical style is.

Ideally, Africans would invest in African music. Pim Betist: “In the old-school music industry only a handful of people decides who ends up in a recording studio. That has been an unfortunate business model for African a

Should you be on Africa Unsigned? Do you think your music has what it takes to impress Africa Unsigned’s music panellists like Baaba Maal, Fela Kuti’s drummer Tony Allen and Damon Albarn? Are you from one of the countries Africa Unsigned is already active in? Then get in touch! Talent and potential are the only criteria, no matter what your musical style is.

rtists. With Africa Unsigned, it’s thousands of music lovers who together release new amazing sounds.”

Africa Unsigned currently only features artists from Senegal, Mali, Zimbabwe, South Africa and Kenya. If the concept proves successful, the plan is to go pan-African, and possibly global.

*Mirjam van den Berg is with Radio Netherlands Worldwide - www.rnw.nl/africa