Africanmp3s.com gives Hope to Musicians

Spyder Lee Entertainment (SLE) on Tuesday, December 15 held an informational seminar for members of the music industry at the Coconut Grove Regency Hotel to discuss the benefits on selling music online. The seminar sought to address the many ways in which Ghanaian artists can utilize the Internet to promote their music. While many musicians have music videos that can be found on websites such as Ghana Music.com and YouTube, only a few of them have, for example, their own websites that direct their fans to where they can find their music to purchase. An even bigger problem, according to SLE, is the lack of music platforms that allow African consumers to purchase the music of their favourite artists online. Spyder Lee Entertainment believes that it�s not enough for people to be able to buy Ghanaian music on iTunes � the sooner local music platforms emerge to satisfy local demand, the better. Spyder Lee Entertainment created www.AfricanMP3s.com to help ensure that anyone who is interested in purchasing music from countries such as Ghana, Nigeria, and the Ivory Coast, have an easy, affordable, and legal way to do so. According to Kofi Mensah, in charge of acquiring content for SLE in the Greater Accra region, �In the many conversations that we have had with musicians, producers, and promoters, we have noticed that the artists are not getting the full financial benefits of their popularity � they are getting thousands of people to watch their videos on YouTube but are only selling hundreds of CDs. In many cases they are not selling any MP3s at all. We are hoping to help change things around a bit.� By creating a platform that will allow individuals to purchase music using international payment platforms such as Paypal and credit cards as well as local payment platforms such as TxtNPay and eTranzact, SLE hopes to help musicians finally have a way to monetize their popularity in a manner that is both efficient and transparent. Among the speakers at the event were Nana Kweku Nduom, founder of Spyder Lee Entertainment, who explained how the module would work and the specific advantages it has over Western platforms such as iTunes, napster and amazon. Mr Nduom also talked about his company�s desire to focus on online distribution of music in Ghana, within Africa and the rest of the world. He also answered pertinent questions that were raced mostly by the musicians who stand to benefit from the project. Among the top issues of concern were copyright ownership, piracy and counterfeiting among other. The other speakers at the seminar were Gyedu-Blay Ambolley and Carlos Sakyi. SPYDER LEE ENTERTAINMENT is a multimedia company that focuses on the promotion of African music via the use of various digital media such as the internet and mobile telephone networks. The company�s website, www.AfricanMP3s.com, aims to become the number one source of downloadable music of African Origin.