Tidal Moves Into Africa, Partners With Telecoms Company MTN

Uganda Gains Tidal

In the past week, Uganda has gotten a great new advancement, a streaming service. Tidal (a pay-per-month streaming service originated by Jay-Z and the only artist owned streaming service to date) announced a new partnership with MTN in Africa which now allowed approximately 10.5 new Ugandan customers to access the service. Before this, music was very restricted in Uganda, but having this streaming service now allows citizen to listen to any type of music, for a monthly price of course.

I think this a fantastic advancement for Africa. I honestly can't imagine my life without streaming services. It's perfect to have a free version of Spotify so I can catch up with new music without having to look it all up on Youtube or buy it all. But, Tidal is not free. Uganda is a rising country, but still has an incredible rate of poverty. Some families may not be able to afford this newfound freedom after the 30-day trial or may have no way to access it at all. Tidal is a pricey streaming service with "premium" (the cheapest package) costing $9.99 per month and $19.99 per month for "HiFi" (higher quality sound). Despite the price tag, this is great news for Africa. Everyone who is able to afford Tidal, can now listen to whatever music they want without restriction. Every step they take towards modernity and freedom is a good step. I just feel it would have been more beneficial for them to have been offered a streaming service that has an option for free streaming instead of having to pay for even a minimal package.

This news is huge to the music industry. Now they can start advertising in Uganda and start collecting streaming data to determine what music is popular in that area so maybe there may be tours for big bands there one day. This brings in a wider audience for artists to appeal to and also (needless to say) more money for the industry which is the goal of any business.