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Jamms

A Study of the Informal Music Industry in Africa

Nokia Research Center

Nokia Research Africa Team

Nokia Research Africa

Contents
Executive Summary ...................................................................................................................................4 Chapter One: Introduction.......................................................................................................................8 1. 2. 3. 4. Background to the study .................................................................................................................8 Research Objective...........................................................................................................................8 Research Questions..........................................................................................................................8 Research Methodology ....................................................................................................................9

Chapter Two: Economic Perspective on Urban Youth........................................................................12 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. Slums and Youth Defined...............................................................................................................12 Slums in Global Context.................................................................................................................12 Slums in Kenyan Context ...............................................................................................................13 Characteristics of Slums .................................................................................................................13 Livelihoods, Income and Expenditure of Slum Dwellers .........................................................13

Chapter Three: Music Creation and Sharing .........................................................................................16 Chapter Four: Conclusions.......................................................................................................................82 Appendix 1: The Slum Code Group .......................................................................................................86 Appendix 2: Mobile Phones and Music Technologies .........................................................................88 Appendix 3: References and Resource Links ........................................................................................94

Music Creation and Sharing

List of Tables and Figures


Fig.1: Jamms methodology .......................................................................................................................9 Table 1: Music industry maturity - Africa...............................................................................................17 Table 2: Nigeria Copyright Piracy Trade Losses ...................................................................................18 Table 3: South Africa Copyright Piracy Trade Losses ..........................................................................18 Fig. 2: Music exports by economic group ..............................................................................................19 Fig. 3: Music exports by economic group and region ..........................................................................20 Table 4: Estimated size of informal music industry - Kenya..............................................................21 Table 5: Estimates of radio listenership and number of upcoming artiste demos submitted ......21 Table 6: Estimated size of informal music industry - Africa ..............................................................22 Fig 4: Ghetto Radio Profile ......................................................................................................................23 Table 7: Musician Profile M4J ..............................................................................................................34 Fig. 5: Sources of income M4J .............................................................................................................37 Fig. 6: Expense items M4J .....................................................................................................................38 Fig 7: Music Creation Process M4J......................................................................................................38 Fig 8: Circles of Influence and Interaction in Music Creation M4J ...............................................39 Table 8: Musician Profile - Wambu .........................................................................................................41 Fig. 9: Expense Items - Wambu ...............................................................................................................44 Fig 10: Music Creation Process - Wambu ..............................................................................................45 Fig. 10: Circles of influence and interaction in music creation - Wambu .........................................46 Table 9: Musician Profile - Ayal ...............................................................................................................48 Fig. 11: Sources of Income - Ayal ...........................................................................................................51 Fig. 12: Expense Items Ayal ..................................................................................................................52 Fig 13: Music Creation Process - Ayal ....................................................................................................53 Fig. 14: Circles of influence and interaction in music creation Ayal ..............................................54 Table 10: Musician Profile: Tash..............................................................................................................56 Fig. 15: Expense Items - Tash ..................................................................................................................59 Fig. 16: Music Creation Process - Tash...................................................................................................60 Fig. 17: Circles of influence and interaction in music creation Tash .............................................61 Table 11: Musician Profile - Erick ...........................................................................................................63 Fig. 18: Music Creation Process - Erick .................................................................................................65 Fig. 19: Circles of influence and interaction in music creation - Erick .............................................66 Table 12: Musician Profile Ngalah .......................................................................................................68 Fig. 20: Music Creation Process - Ngalah ..............................................................................................70 Fig. 21: Circles of influence and interaction in music creation - Ngalah ..........................................71 Table 13: Musician Profile Eric and Kennedy ...................................................................................73 Fig. 22: Music Creation Process Eric and Kennedy ..........................................................................75 Fig. 23: Circles of influence and interaction in music creation Eric and Kennedy......................76 Table 14: Musician Profile - Jackston......................................................................................................78
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A Study of the Informal Music Industry in Africa

Executive Summary

his is a research report of the Jamms project. It studies the informal music industry in urban slums in Africa. The research is combination of extensive deskstudies and more than 220 interviews and observation which took place in Huruma between June and October 2008. Huruma is a slum of 260 000 people in Nairobi, Kenya. Slum is a word which some of the development organizations avoid to use, informal settlement is used instead. People who live in Huruma call their homegrounds slum; this is why we talk about slums without hesitation. Today 1.5 billion people live in slums around the world. Cities of the developing world will absorb 95 per cent of urban growth in the next two decades, and by 2030 these cities will be home to 80 per cent of the worlds urban population. After 2015, rural population will begin to shrink as urban growth becomes more intense in cities of Asia and Africa. These two continents are set to host in 2030 the largest urban populations, 2.66 billion and 748 million, respectively. Poverty and inequality characterizes the majority of the developing-world cities, and urban growth is virtually synonymous with slum formation. We can learn the figures from the statistics, but what do we know about the slums? How do the people live their lives in these overcrowded urban low-income communities? What are the meaningful things for the people living in slums? What are the threats, challenges and sources of joy in the slums? Where do they get livelihood, hope for the future and information? With this research we are answering some of these questions from a small, yet meaningful part of a life of an urban citizen Music. We created overall view to the meaning of music among the general public in the slums and the scale of music as
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self expression and a form of micro entrepreneurship. Later we focused on upcoming musicians and other key players in the informal music industry. The research revealed a multitude of fascinating things. The significance of music as a source of hope and means of information delivery turned out to be extremely high. Locality is an important thing in music, addressing local issues through songs is well appreciated by the community. Also locality can mean a few blocks in the ghetto. Music can also provide a good source of livelihood with a relatively small audience. This is due to the low standard of housing and generally low cost of living, but also because of the high appreciation of musical talent and a well told story. Based on our studies and existing statistics of the formal side of the music industry, we estimated that the size of the informal music industry in Africa is annually between 250 350 million USD. This includes the payments musicians receive from live performances and directly from the CD/C-casette sales. This doesnt include markets of pirated CDs and cassettes which is the main way in which the music of informal artists is also being distributed. Jamms project was done together with Slum Code Group. Slum Code is a local self organized youth organization formed by the slum youth for spreading hope and practical means of self expression and livelihood. Arts and music is very high on Slum Codes agenda. We trained 5 of the youth from Slum Code as our research assistants and without Albert, Billy, Ann, Dennis, and Justin, and the rest of the Slum Code the research would not have been possible. Slum Code provided us access to the amazing musical and verbal talents of Huruma and the club owners and the whole scene of the informal music industry.

Music Creation and Sharing

We want to express our gratitude to Albert and his team, our co-operation is still continuing and finding new forms. This study was done in one of the numerous of slums in Africa. How do these results apply to the other slums in Africa? There are big differences between the slums in size, climate, political, cultural, and religious atmosphere. There are also numerous similar factors between the slums: high population density, young age profile, lack of sanitation and clear water. There is also high unemployment, low access to information and variety of health and social problems. The means of livelihood and enjoyment are also very similar in most of the slums. Very distinctively in Africa music is one of the most important sources of information, hope and uplifting in spiritual and more earthly form. There are a lot of challenges for an upcoming musician in the slums. You might need to rent the instruments for your training, your instrumentalist skills might not develop to the level needed. Getting

your music recorded is a big step which needs not only devotion and talent but also money and good networks within the music circles. The talent, vision and passion of the musicians living in the African slums would be appreciated by the music lovers around the world if the musicians had a chance to practice and develop their skills with decent tools and instruments, as well as possibilities for recording and sharing. These are obstacles which we believe can partly be overcome by creative thinking and new technology and we hope that this report works as a source of knowledge and inspiration for researchers and developers to develop meaningful services and support mechanisms for young musicians living in the slums around the world. Despite the financial constraints there is an extremely strong and vibrant music scene and informal industry in the slums of Africa. This proves that the heart of music is not only about instruments and recording equipment. It is more about passion and love for the art and storytelling through chords and words, and this is something that comes in stocks in Africa.

Research Leader - Nokia Research Africa Nokia Research Center

A Study of the Informal Music Industry in Africa

Music Creation and Sharing

A Study of the Informal Music Industry in Africa

Chapter Introduction
1. 2. 3. 4. Background to the study Research Objective Research Questions Research Methodology

1.

usic making and distribution is a large scale phenomenon in urban slums in Africa; many of the young people living there (local artists) are striving to make use of their musical talent. This is because they are seeking to be a source of inspiration and hope to their communities as well as to earn a living from their music. The music in urban slums is distributed through informal entrepreneurs by way of pirated cassettes and CDs. Because of poverty however, music making and distribution is limited; because of the cost involved as well as limited ability and know-how, recording and editing is difficult for most as is copying and distributing. Other than sending and receiving text messages and making and receiving voice calls, mobile phones are currently used in the urban slums for listening to radio this being the most popular feature of mobile phones amongst the youth.

Background to the Study

3.

Research Questions

In order to satisfy the research objective, the key investigation areas covered by the study are as follows: What is the role of music in the slums? How is local music defined? What music genres are preffered and why? Generation / gender preferences Who are the different players in the music scene: performer, distributor, consumer, etc and what roles do they play? What are the goals or aspirations of music makers in urban slums? How does music distribution work in the slums? How does the economics work in the informal music business in urban areas? What distribution formats are predominant? What are the different ways of sharing music and reasons thereof ? What aspects of music are shared and why?

2.

Research Objective

Through this study, NoRA (Nokia Research Africa) seeks to understand the informal music industry, music consumption and culture in urban slums in Africa. The findings will guide development of affordable mobile music studio for the musically oriented youth. The key target group for this study is musically oriented youth in low-income communities in this case in Huruma slum in Nairobi.

Music Creation and Sharing

What is the need for music creating equipment in the slums? What music instruments and / or electronic deivices are used for music creation? What are the most appreciated features of the equipment? How are new features learnt? How if at all is the mobile phone currently used in music creation? What are the communal aspects of music creation? Individual vs. group artists? What does the music creation processes entail? How if at all does the community influence music creation? What challenges are faced in music creation and how are they overcome?

What are the levels and components of income and expenditure of music makers in the slums? What are the different sources of income and corresponding income earned? What are the different expenditure items and corresponding amounts spent? How much is spent on music creation in particular and why?

How are expenses prioritized and why? Where does music in particular fall? Of what value is this expenditure on music? What level of interest and willingness to invest exists in mobile music studio?

4.

Research Methodology

The Jamms study takes on a multi-faceted approach in terms of methodology. The diagram below summarizes this:
Fig.1: Jamms methodology

Background study on making and performing music

Background study on youth economy & music technology

200 face-to-face questionnaires in Huruma with those interested in making and recording music, both male and female, 16 years and above

Collecting and analyzing secondary data and literature


Economic perspective of youth in urban slums Available or up-coming technology in music industry as relates to mobile phones

In-depth interviews and field studies

8 interviews with musicians in Huruma and some other interviews with relevant personalities e.g. producers / club-owners, local radio stations

A Study of the Informal Music Industry in Africa

The study participants and roles are as outlined below:


Slum Code Group: Nokia Research Africa:

1. Field research assistance. This includes: a. b. c. d. Providing access to the communities Selecting the interviewees and facilitating interviews Sharing and collecting research questionnaires in the community Facilitating the prototype trials

1. Main responsibility in conducting the field research 2. Analysing and reporting the research 3. Leading the concept creation work 4. Prototype implementation with a relevant partner

2. Nokia Research Africa provided sufficient research training for 6 Slum Code members. (Read more about Slum Code in the Appendices.)

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Music Creation and Sharing

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A Study of the Informal Music Industry in Africa

Chapter Economic Perspective on Urban Youth


1. 2. 3. 4. 5. Slums and Youth Defined Slums in Global Context Slums in Kenyan Context Characteristics of Slums in Nairobi Livelihoods, Income and Expenditure of Slum Dwellers 1. Slums and Youth Defined

mong the challenges facing the Kenyan youth, unemployment is the most critical. Jobs in formal employment are hard to come by and most lack appropriate skills or access to capital to start businesses. Most of these youth live in the urban slums and are vulnerable to the host of challenges that comes with this such as poor housing and living conditions, congestion and poor sanitation, insecurity, among others. When youth fail to find productive and decent livelihoods, they often become social misfits and enter a vicious cycle of poverty. Because of this, they end up engaging in vices such as crime, drug and substance abuse. The importance of helping youth find productive and decent employment has therefore become a primary motivation of international youth policy making and development efforts. What solutions and alternatives can we therefore find through the J-AMMS project? Key facts, figures and analysis are discussed in this chapter as an eye-opener to the economic situation of the low-income youth in urban slums that this project targets.

The definition of a slum varies from city to city. UN Habitat defines a slum household as a group of individuals living under the same roof lacking one or more of: access to improved water, access to improved sanitation facilities, sufficient living area, structural quality/durability of dwellings, security of tenure (UN HABITAT, 2003) Across the globe, the comparative definition of youth varies, but generally covers young people up to age 35.

2.

Slums in Global Context

Population estimates indicate that in 2007, the worlds urban population equaled the worlds rural population (WB, 2008). Developing countries in particular are experiencing very high rates of urbanisation with Africa and Asia having the largest urban populations. Africa is the most rapidly urbanizing region, with poverty in urban areas increasing. Using the US$1/day line, about 40 percent of urban residents are poor and with the US$2/day line, close to 70 percent are poor (WB, 2007).

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Economic Perspective on Urban Youth

Global estimates report nearly 1 billion people living in slums. Slum dwellers include one out of every three city dwellers, a sixth of the worlds population (UN Habitat, 2006). In Africa, the proportion of urban residents living in slums is 72% or 187 million people (UN-HABITAT, 2006). UN-HABITAT has observed trends in Africa that the majority of young people working in the urban informal sector live in slum areas. For example, in Benin, slum dwellers comprise 75% of informal sector workers, while in Burkina Faso, the Central African Republic, Chad and Ethiopia, they make up 90% of the informal labour force. Youth residing in slum areas are more likely to have a child, be married or head a household than their counterparts living in non-slum areas.

only 5% of the total residential area of the city, they are inhabited by at least half of the citys population. Slums in Nairobi are characterized by the following: Structure owners with a semi-legal right of occupation Structures constructed of temporary material and do not conform to minimum standards Structures are let on a room-to-room basis; most households occupy a single room High population densities of about 250 units per hectare (compared to 25 per hectare in middle income and 15 per hectare in high income areas) Haphazard physical layout making it very difficult to provide infrastructure services. Consequently urban services are non-existent (roads, electricity, water, sanitation, waste disposal, health and education services, decency and privacy ) Majority of inhabitants on low or very low incomes Morbidity and mortality rates from diseases due to poor environmental conditions are higher than in other parts of the city

3.

Slums in Kenyan Context

Kenyas population is estimated at 35 million persons (KNBS, 2008) 75% (26.2M) of these are below 30 years 38% (13.3M) of the population are youth aged 15-35 years 76% (10.1M) of the youth are unemployed (57% /5.75M are females) In Kenya there are three cities namely Nairobi, Mombasa and Kisumu - there are several slums in each of these cities and over 60% of the population lives in the slums (UN Habitat, 2006). Nairobi population estimates range from 2.5 - 3M (meaning 1.5 1.8M slum dwellers in Nairobi alone). Although there are elderly people living in slums, the majority are young people under 35. These residents have to deal with the social, environmental and economic hardship of the slums. Nairobi employs 25% of Kenyans and 43% of the countrys urban workers and it generates over 45% of the countrys GDP (Gross Domestic Product). Nairobi City Council is seriously challenged with respect to the resource requirements, leading to delays and reduced urban service delivery. Lack of services and infrastructure thus constrains Nairobis economic development.

5.

Livelihoods, Income and Expenditure of Slum Dwellers

A recent survey (by Pamoja Trust in Huruma) shows the largest occupations of slum dwellers to be small scale entrepreneurs, casual labourers, artisans, and formal employees including watchmen, domestic workers, clerks and waiters. They survey also shows that slum dwellers have very few assets, most of which are easily movable. Generally the slum dwellers lack financial resources and most tend to rely on family members, associations or money lenders. Most of them earn very low incomes ranging from KES 88 to KES 28,000 (~1 to 280 Euros) although the majority earn between KES 5,000 and 7,500 (~50 to 75 Euros) per month (UN Habitat, 2003). For the youth in particular, majority of their income sources are irregular and low paying due to the informal and inconsistent nature of the work they are able to find. The largest expenditure items for people living in the slums in order of priority are: food, education, housing, health, fuel (i.e. cooking and lighting fuel), transport and water. Main daily expenditures include food, transport, water and fees for use of toilet facilities. Welfare and credit associations also feature in many slum dwellers expenditure items as this serves as a social insurance for their livelihoods.

4.

Characteristics of Slums in Nairobi

According to UN Habitat, Nairobi has the highest growth rates per annum compared to the other growth rates in Africa. 75% of the urban population growth is absorbed by informal settlements. It is predicted that the number of population living in slums will double in the next 15 years. Although informal settlements cover

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A Study of the Informal Music Industry in Africa

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Music Creation and Sharing

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A Study of the Informal Music Industry in Africa

Chapter Music Creation and Sharing


1. Key Insights 2. Case Studies

Music is an integral part of African life, society and communications. Among other creative arts, it makes a significant contribution in enhancing quality of life, which is similar to the objectives of many other development initiatives, although this contribution is not captured in GNP (Gross National Product) or HDI (Human Development Indicator). Music is also a revenue earner, improving incomes and living standards. In addition it is a source of identity e.g. nationality, community, work, language, politics, religion, etc. It strengthens solidarities and plays a unification role across narrowly divisive groupings. Music acts as dialogue, and as a vehicle of communication giving voice to the voiceless. Development of the music (and creative) industry in Africa can make several contributions to economic development, social change, political cohesion and cultural progress. With sufficient scale, this can ultimately include diversification of economic activities away from primary commodities which have dominated the past several decades. Recorded music products are part of a US$50 billion global market, compared to coffee - US$17 billion, cotton - US$ 20 billion, tobacco - US$21 billion, bananas - US$27 billion. The

challenge is to help increase the creative capacities of most developing countries and where possible, lower constraints e.g. financial barriers to recording, lack of access to instruments, etc. The music industry in Africa is largely informal and there are no consolidated sources for measuring the size of the industry. Music production in Africa is largely independent, informal, small in scale and domestically oriented (except South Africa). African musicians who enjoy international sales are a small fraction of the number of musicians in Africa. For example in Senegal where the music industry is relatively well established, this would constitute approximately a dozen of the countrys 30,000 musicians. Most of the African artists who have been successful outside Africa have also done their recording outside Africa. Networks of studios, agents, technicians and other music managers have not yet emerged in Africa. The table below shows the maturity of the music industry in Africa in terms of the performance industry as well as recording industry.

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Table 1: Music industry maturity - Africa

Source: UNESCO 2005, The Global Alliance for Cultural Diversity The Music Industry in Sub Saharan Africa http://portal.unesco.org/culture/en/ev.php-URL_ID=26323&URL_DO=DO_TOPIC&URL_SECTION=201.html

Key points of interest to note from the above analysis: 30% of all SSA countries have no evidence of a music industry (due to instability/economic position) 66% of countries have not broken through embryonic stage In 35% of all countries, there is an establishedmusic industry

Piracy
Piracy is a pervasive problem and no African country has less than a 25% piracy level (in parts of W. Africa piracy is estimated up to 90%). (IIPI, 2006). In Kenya,

piracy ranges from 90% for music cassettes and CDs to virtually 100% for video and DVD (IIPA, 2006). Local Kenyan music is pirated in Uganda and Tanzania and imported into Kenya for example between June 2002 and February 2003, Kenyas Customs & Excise department seized more than 100,000 music CDs coming into Nairobi and another 15,000 in Mombasa. During the same period, the industry reported legitimate sales of just 15,000 CDs. Thus, estimated annual trade losses = 13 Million US Dollars (IIPA, 2007). In Nigeria, piracy is so bad that local artists now refuse to release their latest albums and movies into the retail market (IIPA, 2008). There are a reported 15 optical disc plants in operation which have 70 production lines, capable of producing over 240 million discs per year. Reports from neighboring countries suggest that large quantities of pirate discs are being exported from these plants in Nigeria across the region.

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A Study of the Informal Music Industry in Africa

Table 2: Nigeria Copyright Piracy Trade Losses

Source: International Intellectual Property Alliance, 2008 2008 Special 301 Report: Nigeria http://www.iipa.com/pdf/IIPAAGOAfilingtoUSTRfinal102008.pdf

In South Africa, cassette piracy remains probably the most devastating to the music and record industries, as cassettes provide all kinds of music on a very cheap medium affordable to all. This is in addition to optical

disc piracy of music. Recent estimates project the current music piracy levels in South Africa to be below 40%.

Table 3: South Africa Copyright Piracy Trade Losses

Source: International Intellectual Property Alliance, 2007 2007 Special 301 Report: South Africa http://www.iipa.com/rbc/2007/2007SPEC301SOUTHAFRICA.pdf

Global music market and music exports


Up to 90% of the global music market is accounted for by just five corporations: EMI Records, Sony, Vivendi Universal, AOL Time Warner and BMG. Africa has proved to be a difficult market for the American-owned corporations, largely because the economic situation outside South Africa means a lack of profitable markets. In South Africa, Gallo Records is one of the biggest record labels, not only because of its representation of African music, but also because it is the exclusive licensee for Warner Music International. Across the countries of the region with the exception of South Africa, economic data pertaining to the music industry is not available (employment, contribution to GDP, economic value generated, etc). It can be argued therefore that there is no music industry as such but rather a range of activities relating to the production and consumption of music whose level of formalization varies from country to country. Global Statistics on exports of recorded music (mainly CDs) show that this was worth US$14.8B in 2005 and that the developed economies accounted for over 90% of this.

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Fig. 2: Music exports by economic group

Chart 5.10

Music: Exports, by economic group, 1996 & 2005

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1996

2005 10 (billion US$)

Developed Economies

Developing Economies

Economies in Transition

Source: UNCTAD Database

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A Study of the Informal Music Industry in Africa

The table below also shows music exports by region. Africa had a declining share of music exports between 2000 and 2005. This however does not capture live performances, which is a major part of the African music economy. It also does not reflect the contribution of informal (legal) and pirate operators.

Fig. 3: Music exports by economic group and region

Source: UNCTAD

Other available statistics on the music industry show that in South Africa the core of the music industry employs approximately 12 000 people, the majority of who are artists and composers. The gross turnover of the core of the industry is approximately R900-million (US$111-billion), with experts estimating that the entire industry is worth R2-billion (US$248-million). In 2004, the World Bank issued a report titled Integrated Value Chain Analysis of Kenyas Music Industry: Critical Challenges and Opportunities, which declared that

Kenyas music economy was worth a potential Ksh4.7 billion. Given the limited availability of statistics pertaining to the music industry, in order to give a somewhat clearer picture of the industry size, some estimations made based on some assumptions as well as information from key informants in the industry reveal the following indicators about Kenya:

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Music Creation and Sharing

Table 4: Estimated size of informal music industry - Kenya

Source: NoRA Interviews with Key Informants, Nairobi

In addition the music industry can be said to have good potential based on an assessment of young people who are trying to make it in music. Discussions with some FM stations in Nairobi reveal:

Table 5: Estimates of radio listenership and number of upcoming artiste demos submitted

Source: NoRA Interviews with Key Informants, Nairobi

The above data yields an average of 41 CDs submitted by artists to each radio station per week or ~ 1,000 CDs per week (assuming about 25 urban radio stations). Other points to note are that of the CDs received by FM stations from artistes, very few are air play quality (less than 10%); the mainstream stations are less accessible to local artistes and smaller stations tend to receive a larger number of samples from local artistes.

From the relative size and maturity of the music industries in other countries across Africa, the following estimates are drawn (for 70% of SSA countries with an evident music industry/~38 countries):

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A Study of the Informal Music Industry in Africa

Table 6: Estimated size of informal music industry - Africa

Source: NoRA estimates based on industry interviews, October 2008

From the study conducted in Huruma, it is evident that the Informal Music Industry is made up of various players all playing distinct roles as described below: Different levels of musicians: o Hobbyists these are individuals who are musically oriented and enjoy making music and experimenting for fun or as a pastime activity. Because of their talent, some of them are also involved in musical activities in various social insitutions they belong to such as church choirs, school choirs, dance troupes, etc. Upcoming artistes those who are musically oriented, are passionate about making music, have a good collection of music they have composed, may have recorded some of it and / or are actively engaged in trying to produce it in order to earn a living from it. This category includes both individuals and groups or bands. Most of them tend to seek as many avenues as possible to share their music particularly through live performances. They also spare some time to help out other young people who want to start out in music making for example writing some lyrics for them, introducing them to other relevant players in the industry such as local producers and club owners. o Event performers these are individuals or bands that are fairly well established but whose main goal is simply to perform at private or public funtions and get paid for it; they do not have much more ambition beyond this e.g. in terms of production and distribution of their music. There is often significant demand or market for these musicians given that in the African culture, music is an important component of almost any function or event. Examples of functions include weddings, graduation ceremonies or parties, public launches of products or services, birthday parties, funerals, farewell parties, etc. However these event performers do face competition albeit somewhat limited from the upcoming artistes who use live performance as a key channel for sharing their music and are also much cheaper to hire. Established musicians these are the local professional artistes (individuals as well as bands) who are popular amongst the local audiences and in some instances also have some international audience. They have recorded most of their music

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Music Creation and Sharing

and are given sufficient air time on the mainstream radio and TV stations. They are also often invited to perform at various major events. Some of them are actively engaged in mentoring the upcoming artistes. Peers these constitute the inner circle of friends of upcoming artistes i.e. certain family members, and close friends who appreciate the artistes work as well as fellow upcoming artistes. Peers act as confidantes of the artiste, serving to provide encouragement and advice as well as helping to critique during the music making process. Local Producers These primarily offer recording services to upcoming and established artistes. Depending on the level of artiste they also offer other services like lyric writing, beat and rhythm generation as well as marketing of the final product. When dealing with upcoming artistes in particular they normally exercise a lot of power and have the final say on the end product. Local producers are paid by the musicians for these services and this is usually a one off payment especially for upcoming artistes. Some producers earn royalties from the music they produce and this is mostly for the established musicians who have a recording contract with them and hence do not transact in terms of one-offs.
Fig 4: Ghetto Radio Profile

DJs and Club Owners Because local music is very popular amongst the local audience, the DJs and Club Owners tend to play a lot of it so as to attract more clientele. As such they offer plenty of exposure to the upcoming artistes. In addition they sometimes pay the upcoming artistes and established artistes to perform live and also nurture talent of upcoming artistes by hosting competitions. Local Radio Stations There are a great number of small FM radio stations that are catering for the needs of the youth. They are more in touch with the informal music industry and as such upcoming artistes have easier access to them than they do mainstream radio and TV stations. Examples of such local radio stations are Ghetto Radio 89.5FM based in Ngara area, Koch FM in Korogocho Slums, Pamoja 99.9FM in Kibera Slum. These radio stations provide initial exposure to upcoming artistes by giving them airtime. They also help raise the rating of these musicians through the charts and involving audiences in voting for their favourite songs and artistes. However upcoming musicians still desire to have their music played on the mainstream stations because they have a much wider reach and audience. The local stations are also not as many; they constitute approximately only 11% of the 45 FM radio stations licensed in Nairobi. Below is a summary profile of Ghetto Radio.

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A Study of the Informal Music Industry in Africa

Mainstream Media Houses (TV and Radio Stations) In addition to giving exposure through air time, and raising the ratings of musicians through charts and voting by audience these stations also enhance the status of the musicians by virtue of the fact that their music is deemed good enough to be played on their stations. Currently there are 45 licensed FM radio stations in Nairobi and 12 licensed TV stations, majority of which are mainstream in terms of a nationwide reach and significant viewership and listenership ratings. Event Managers These are often scouting for musicians to perform at the functions or events they are organizing. They offer exposure to the musicians they hire and pay for their service. Social institutions These include various youth organizations, churches, and schools. They give possibilities for live performances and also nurture talent of upcoming musicians and hobbyists through the activities they carry out and the access to music equipment and instruments.

Matatus These are very popular means of public transport within the cities and towns and other than getting commuters from one point of the city to another, they offer music as a form of entertainment for their customers. Most matatus have therefore invested in good music equipment DVD / VCD players, and speakers and play loud music throughout their trips. Most of them tend to play local music (as this type of music is very popular) in order to attract more customers and as such give exposure to the local musicians. There is also a lot of status associated with ones music being played in the popular matatus around town. CD Vendors There are various small music stores and shops where people can buy music. Some vendors also hawk the music along the city streets and along the traffic on the highways during peak hours. Audience These are the people who listen to or consume the music. They to some extent determine the type and content of the music and also critique or give feedback to the artistes. They also pay for the music.

More detail on the key insights into the informal music industry can be found in the following section.

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Music Creation and Sharing

1
Key Insights
Music is an integral part of peoples lives in the urban slums. Apart from entertainment, education, and personal expression and status in the community, music making is an increasingly popular means of livelihood and at the early stages does not require a lot of professional training. Until the recent past, music making was hardly given any recognition or acceptance by the community as a way in which one can earn a living. I am taking music seriously as my career since I am talented and have a passion for it besides my form four grades are not good enough for me to venture into the traditional fields like medicine, law and the like

Background study statistics reveal that: o A total of 96% have been involved in singing at one point in time in their lives o Majority have desire to make their own music 42% have had an opportunity to do so o 65% of the respondents consider that music can be a useful source of livelihood. In-depth field studies and secondary data reveals that: o When regular or consistent, money that can be earned from music making in a month is higher than the average salaries of most slum dwellers o In the informal music industry, a musician does not have to make it big in order to earn a living; the pay from one live performance for an upcoming artiste ranges from KES 2,000 to KES 10,000 while the cost of living in the informal settlements is not high.
I am looking forward to the day when we will make enough music from the band so that I can focus more on this as a career and less and less on my graphic design I am positive that this is only a matter of time
M4J, Upcoming Gospel Rap Musician

Tash, leader of an upcoming band in Huruma

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A Study of the Informal Music Industry in Africa

Music is a way of life in the urban slum communities. It manifests itself in many different ways in the day-to-day lives of the people. Dressing and public transport are some of the visual ones.

From in-depth field studies and observations: Matatu culture is a major part of music and youth culture in Kenya. Matatus are public transport vehicles plying various routes to and from residential areas and the city centre. For matatus, music is a major offering other than the transport they provide and as such branding of the body of the vehicle to express music is a major undertaking for most of them. The more musical oriented the matatu the more likely it is to attract youthful customers. It is quite common to observe youth wearing clothes that reflect their love for music. Listening to music appears to be a daily occurrence with over 90% of respondents saying they listen to music at least once a day or more. In Huruma as in most other African settings, music making and music consumption is culturally significant music is a must have for any event or function whether public or private.

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Music Creation and Sharing

The church is identified as an important avenue for many young people to develop their music career

Music in urban slum communities is issueoriented music. Music makers strongly feel the need not only to entertain and have fun but to deliver key messages to their audiences on life issues. Music is a source of education and hope.

From the Background study: A total of 32% of the respondents sing in church Many youth can access music instruments at church. The church serves as a key public performance venue; most public performances (37%) are carried out there. Crusades which are also church related add another 9% to this.

Background study statistics illustrate: Songs are normally composed with a defined goal; 29% sing to inspire and encourage those who have lost hope in life, 26% sing songs to give general advice on life issues and another 26% to give praise and thanksgiving to God, 12% love songs and 5% on ghetto life.

We make music on social issues like rape, corruption and many othersthrough our music we want to show the community how to live better

Ayal, member of an upcoming band in Huruma


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A Study of the Informal Music Industry in Africa

Music instruments are an important aspect of music making yet there is limited access and limited knowledge or expertise resulting in limited use of the same. Majority of musical instruments are expensive and therefore not readily available to people without regular and substantial incomes

Majority of the respondents learn to play musical instruments through their own efforts and practice (62%) Many (79%) do not own the instrument they play 39% have had the opportunity to make their own songs with instruments

Statistics from the Background Study inform: Music is normally accompanied with instruments for enrichment. Majority of the respondents have experience in playing one type of instrument or another (51.5%) 31% play the drum, 27% the guitar, 18% keyboard and 16% piano. 3% flute and 1% for harp, kayamba and other assorted traditional instruments

In-depth field studies reveal: Because of limited access to music instruments as well as expertise in playing, most musicians depend on the producers to generate the beats for their music.

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Music Creation and Sharing

There is a distinct and heavy hip-hop / rap culture in urban slums. Also popularly known as Genge on the local scenes, this is a genre that many youth enjoy and identify with.

Musicians are striving to create a specific and unique identity for Kenyan music; music that can add value to Kenyan tourism. They aspire to be part of such an initiative to impact the Kenyan music industry as a whole.

Background study statistics show: A total of 16% of respondents say hip hop is their favourite genre From in-depth field studies: Most artistes interviewed show an inclination towards hip hop. Even those making music in other genres such as Afro-fusion indicate that theirs is not as popular a genre as is hip hop.

In-depth field studies reveal: Despite being quite young in the music industry, many upcoming artistes already have an idea of where they want to see Kenyan music and are already engaged in holding the hands of other musically oriented youth at their reach to help and guide them along the path. They hope that by doing this they can influence them to contribute significantly to Kenyan music with a difference.

Hip hop is what we do Everyone around is into Hip Hop In our neighbourhood many young people sing hip hop but mainly for fun or as a hobby but for us we are serious about it as a career thats why we want to record our music

We make music on social issues like rape, corruption and many othersthrough our music we want to show the community how to live better

Upcoming Hip Hop Artist (Collaborating Duo)

M4J, Upcoming Gospel Rap Artiste

Market exists for upcoming artistes. Because audiences want music that they can relate to and identify with locally, local music and local artistes are very popular in urban slums. They speak the local language and they understand the life issues and experiences hence there is heavier consumption of local music in the slums than there is of western music and music from other parts of the world.

The drum is the main instrument for music making in the slums. Given that there is limited access to professional music training, the drum is fairly simple to learn to play as compared to other instruments. It is also much easier to access than other instruments and the rhythm and beat produced by the drum goes very well with rap and hip-hop genres of music which are the most popular amongst the slum youth.

In-depth field studies and observations unravel that: Local club-owners prefer to play local music as there is high demand for this. Apparently clubs that play local music tend to attract more clientele. Matatus (local public transport vehicles) also play a lot of local music which is in line with the tastes and demands of their clientele.

Background Study statistics show: The drum has the highest proportion of respondents who say they have expertise in playing it (31%).

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A Study of the Informal Music Industry in Africa

The guitar and piano are aspirational instruments for young music makers in the slums. Many long to play these some day while significant others are already practicing to play on their own. These instruments are good value additions especially for those who are into R & B and Afro-Fusion genres of music which are also quite popular.

Background study statistics indicate: 27% play the guitar, 18% the keyboard and 16% the piano. Other than Hip Hop at 16%, R&B (8%), Reggae, and Afro Fusion are the other genres of music that have a liking or following in Huruma. In-depth field studies reveal: Most upcoming artistes are keen to learn a music instrument, some are practicing on their own while some have enrolled in music school or have future plans to do so.

With the exception of mobile phones which most people own or have access to, majority have limited access to electronic devices such as computers and this limits music makers in terms of what they can do and how much of it in their music creation process. This is therefore a gap that could potentially be filled by a mobile phone with music making and recording capabilities; there is an existing and increasing appreciation for such a phone that can support the artists work by recording and storing music (audio, video) as well as features that can enable sharing.

From the background study: Most 77% have never created music with an electronic device. Out of the 23% who have, the computer is the most used device (71%), while the mobile phone is moderately used at 11%. 95% would want to record music using their mobile phones and 94% would want to make music with their phone. Even with the basic devices that most of the musicians own, they already demonstrate some effort and creativity to use them in their music making. Some use the text messaging feature

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Music Creation and Sharing

to store drafts of lyrics whenever they get inspiration, others who have an audio recording feature use it to record their first rough cuts / ideas and play back to themselves so as to refine, etc. They are however limited by the capacity of the phones they have. Despite their low and irregular incomes the artistes express a great interest and desire to invest in a mobile phone with music making and recording capabilities.

on TV). Recorded music in CD or VCD format also offer respondents an opportunity to encounter local artistes as they cannot possibly attend all the live performances in all the different locations. Mass media acts as the first point of information for new music or new artistes 63% indicate that they learn of new artistes from radio, TV or newspapers.

I wouldnt mind spending money on a phone with a mini-studio probably as much as my most expensive instrument but, for it to be valuable to me, I need to make money from it very quickly so it must be easy enough to use and give quality output

Other than recording music, making music videos is an extremely important aspect of production for musicians. The market is more inclined towards consumption of music through technologies that support the video aspect.

From in-depth field studies and observations, it is apparent that: Upcoming artistes feel that a visual aspect to their music would help propel them ahead in their music career. Other than radio, TV is a very important music consumption media most stations have at least one or two music programmes every day and at least 3 to 4 on weekends where they play various genres of music and feature different artistes. Most of these programmes dedicate sufficient air time to local artistes. Most popular matatus also play music videos rather than just audio and this presents a great opportunity for upcoming artistes to get noticed. Music videos are a key promotion and sharing tool for upcoming musicians who are really trying to sell themselves it gives them the opportunity to better exloit channels such as the internet where they can upload their videos to relevant websites e.g. my space, sell a band, etc.

Erick, Leader of Established Band from Huruma

More musicians would record their music if only they had the ability and / or could afford it because they strongly believe that this is the key to success.

Statistics from the background study show: Out of the 42% who have had an opportunity to make music, only 11% make use of a recording artise. Majority, (82%) express their desire to have their music on record; 89% have not recorded any music at all while 11% have had an opportunity to record. 33% cite financial constraint as the main reason why they have not recorded their music. Out of the 11% who have recorded, 71% use their recorded music for commercial purposes. Other than attending live performances, Radio (24%), CDs (24%) and TV (23%) are popular ways in which residents of Huruma consume music all of which require the artistes to have recorded their music first. Local artistes are normally encountered through the local mass media (26% on radio and 24%

I think if we as Yunasi had more money, we would spend it in making videos You see our music is more informative but majority of FM radio stations prefer to play music for entertainment so for us TV is more suitable... we also have an international audience and with video we can distributed our music across the world and allow the audience to identify more intimately with us as artistes and our music

Erick, Leader of Established Band from Huruma


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A Study of the Informal Music Industry in Africa

I am saving up for my videos; I know it will cost me about KES 25,000 to 30,000 (EUR 250 to 300). Its worth it because I will be able to promote my music throughout the country and even in other countries video has a lot of value

Just as experimentation is an intrinsic part of music making, musicians in Huruma desire to experiment more with their music so as to fully exploit their potential and come out with something that will have a great impact on their audiences. This is however currently not possible with the commercial driven producers and the financial constraints of the musicians, and lack of own equipment and instruments.

Wambu, Upcoming Hip Hop Genge Artiste

Live performance is a key channel for music sharing in urban slums.

Quality of production in the Informal Music Industry is wanting yet quality is crucial if one wishes to get their music into the mass media. Most of the local producers are little talented or musically oriented. In addition they are mainly seeking to make quick money hence do not have at heart the interests of the musicians. Because the musicians are financially constrained, they have little or no say on the end product.

Background study statistics disclose: Majority have not had an opportunity to record their music whereas opportunity to perform in public is less limited (53% have done so) Majority of respondents listen to live music during live concerts (43%) another 31% frequent pubs and night clubs to enjoy live music. Fourteen percent of the respondents get the opportunity to listen to live music in the streets. This is mainly promotions or road shows. Social functions such as church, crusades as well as weddings provide 12% of the respondents with opportunities for listening to live music.

In-depth field studies and observations reveal that: Radio stations are forced to reject large number of CDs from upcoming artistes simply because of poor production quality Ghetto Radio rejects about 100 CDs over a 2 week period. Many upcoming artistes express the desire to produce their own music.

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Music Creation and Sharing

For now performing at live concerts or shows is the main way that we can share our music since we have not recorded yetwe will continue to share our music this way until such a time as when we can be able to afford to record then we can look into things like CDs and maybe putting more on the internet

Tash, Leader of Upcoming Afro-Fusion Band in Huruma

Upcoming musicians are willing to go the extra mile for the sake of exposure. Performing for free at various events and concerts is thus quite a common phenomenon amongst upcoming artistes. Free performance is a worthwhile sacrifice - the more the initial exposure, the more the likelihood of paying events in future and perhaps a breakthrough into mass media. The need to get their message out so as to educate or inspire the masses is also a driving factor of free performances.

Background study statistics show:


More opportunities for sharing music through live performance are very valuable to upcoming musicians in urban slums. This is a key means of artistic expression and a channel through which one can nurture their talent and also leave a mark/legacy in the society by putting their talent, message and creativity out there. It is also a fairly good return on investment when it pays.

65% reported not having received any reward financial or otherwise for their live performance

From the Background study on making and performing music it is found that: Motivations of public performance are: entertainment (27%), education (19%), preaching (17%), nurturing own talent (10%) 35% who have performed in public received some form of reward for it (out of this 7% was a financial reward)

The average spend on buying recorded music (CDs or cassettes) in the urban slums is low. This is partly driven by piracy and partly by the fact that the consumers are in the low-income category and therefore cannot afford higher priced music. As such musicians particularly the young budding artistes are forced to sell their music at very low prices and this is not a good or fair return vis a vis the amount spent on production.

From the background study: On average, individuals spend between KES 100 and 500 (EUR 1 and 5)to buy music (one CD) depending on whether it is orginal or copied; copied CDs usually go for even less than KES 100 (EUR 1).

Notwithstanding the positives associated with live performance, there is still need for more and better alternatives for sharing music so as to reach wider audiences

In-depth field studies reveal that: Mass media (mainstream TV and Radio) is deemed to be very important for music sharing but has so far been quite disappointing particularly for the upcoming artistes as they rarely give them any air time. Artistes are constantly seeking for avenues to share their music even though their main goal is to get air time on the mainstream TV and Radio stations.
Piracy is a big problem in Kenya I think the Government is trying as much as possible in this area of copyrights but still if my music is copied I cant do much to protect myself as a musician because right now I cant afford to pay the lawyers or have enough money to go to court

Wambu, Upcoming Hip Hop Genge Artiste

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2
Case Studies
M4J (Made For Jesus) Wambu Ayal (Member of Koko Band) Tash (Member of Koko Band) Erick (Member of Yunasi Band) Ngalah (Member of Yunasi Band) Eric and Kennedy Jackston

M4J (Made For Jesus)


Table 7: Musician Profile M4J

History as a musician
oniface Owino popularly known as M4J in his neighbourhood is an upcoming artiste living in the Huruma Slums. He ventured into the music industry at a tender age while still in primary school. It all began with attendance of a Christian camp (Word of Life) where various activities were taking place and he was interested in the dancing; he had a feeling that he was talented in this area and wanted to give it a try. He
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was particularly intrigued by break dance and before going to the camp he had been spending some time with a close friend who helped coach him and with time M4J became quite good at it. At the camp M4J had opportunity to perform and the excitement from the crowd spurred him on. After the camp he wanted to continue with his dancing and had the opportunity to attend a break dance concert where he interacted with the performers and gained ideas and inspiration from them. From then on he continued to practice

Music Creation and Sharing

on his own and even started creating his own styles. Meanwhile his older brother advised him to get more involved in church activities such as drama but his heart was not in it. Eventually his brother forced him to start attending overnight prayer services (keshas) with him and by the time he joined secondary school he was used to attending them on his own. It was at this point that M4J says that he got a calling from God in essence meaning that God wanted to use him. One day while at school he saw a group of boys rapping freestyle and got interested. He started practicing on his own, writing lyrics and rhymes based on current issues in the community and with a Christian perspective on the same. He would often practice rapping these rhymes and lyrics and with time he had composed his first song. In late 2003 he got close to some musicians one of whom took him along to one of his studio recording sessions. M4J gathered courage and spoke to the producer telling him that he too had talent and would like an opportunity to record some music. At first the producer gave him the run around but finally M4J was able to get commitment out of him. It was then that he recorded his first single called Anaweza which is a Swahili word for He is able. He has continued to make music since then and is currently making plans to launch his second album.

life, such as drugs and crime to take an alternative approach to life, etc. He makes music for a variety of reasons: its a passion, to reach and to teach people by giving hope, guidance and direction. The music he creates is largely targeted to the community in general and he doesnt feel that he necessarily targets the youth alone since the content of his music is intended to inspire and encourage the community as a whole. He hopes to achieve a lot as a musician and has a number of aspirations/goals. He hopes to earn a living from it especially since he does not feel he has high academic skills that would enable him have a career in the traditional fields. M4J also hopes to build a childrens home with proceeds from his music. Beyond this one of his other aspirations is to change the type of music produced locally by giving guidance or inspiring artistes to produce quality music especially in content (lyrics produced and video content). Besides making music, M4J is a member of two dance groups, who generally also perform in his videos. Right now he is not keen on singing as part of a group or a band mainly because he feels that this is likely to result in conflict in terms of what content to include in the music, ownership issues as well as jealousy and competition amongst members of the group. He notes however that collaborations may be okay, especially maybe in the chorusing part, where he feels he would benefit from having ladies do this for him in certain songs where he may not be able to do it very well on his own.

M4Js music
M4J makes rap music but specifically Gospel rap. He gets most of the lyrical guidance from the Bible. Some of the songs he has produced so far mostly have content on social issues e.g condemning abortion, AIDS, encouraging those caught up in vices of slum

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A Study of the Informal Music Industry in Africa

M4J feels that the community greatly influences the kind of music that people create. In his case, he thinks the influence is in regard to the content of his music the life experiences around him inspire the lyrical content of his music besides inspiration from the Bible.

discourage purchase. It is also expected that such a phone will be too expensive and if it is stolen, the loss will be too great. Another thing that is confusing to M4J is the different arrangement of buttons and menus across different models of phone, e.g. between the Nokia 1800 and Nokia 2300. However he says that the difference is not so great, hence with time one gets used to the new phone.

Mobile phone usage


This musician has owned and used a Nokia 1800 which has since been stolen. Some of the features he talks about are the loudspeaker which he says was small and manageable. He also mentions that the buttons were user friendly. According to M4J, the Nokia 1800 also had features like text messaging, games, phonebook, calendar, time and phone settings. Out of these features he mainly used the text messaging, the phonebook and the time. He mentions that he never got to use the currency converter feature as well as the stopwatch and some other phone settings which he was somewhat unsure about mainly because these features were simply not relevant to him. The features that he liked most were the games and the text messaging. The kind of features that M4J hopes to have in a phone in future would be all the features of the Nokia 1800 and in addition an FM radio, an audio recorder, a camera and one that is WAP enabled. This is because he would like to be able to record any inspiration for his music that comes to him regardless of where he is, be able to record rhymes that come to him without having to wait to get home, be able to record videos at whichever location especially capturing backgrounds or sites that he can use for his videos as he goes around the town and neighbourhoods. The WAP feature will also enable him send and receive e-mails easily and hence keep in closer contact with his friends. As a whole, M4J describes his mobile phone use experience as fun. He says that it is amazing that you can reach anyone anywhere anytime and basically have interesting times. With mobile phones it is even possible for people to send air time to each other. In terms of learning how to use mobile phones this musician says that it is a self-taught process for him. He does this mainly by going through all the features included in the phone through the menu and trying them out. So far the feature that he finds somewhat difficult to use is that of accessing and downloading e-mails; it is confusing not only to him but other people he knows have expressed the same. He also says that phones that have other technical features such as TV are intimidating to people like him and may thus

Income and Expenditure


M4Js says that his main source of income is pocket money from his parents given that he is just out of high school and still living at home with his parents. His father is a mason and his mother runs a small business. He however says that this is not a regular source of income because the nature of work that his parents do is also irregular and inconsistent hence they sometimes have no money at all and in such cases they turn to him for help. Other ways in which M4J makes money are through selling t-shirts, performing at concerts and selling CDs of his music. For the t-shirts, he goes to the local flea markets where he buys plain used t-shirts which he then re-designs by branding them with his own logo and then re-sells. He calls this his onw line of clothing which he refers to as slumwear. This is also not a regular source of income because he sometimes lacks money to buy the plain t-shirts. Money from concerts is also irregular as it depends on whether or not he gets invited to perform and still some of the shows are for free. The CDs that he sells are mostly at the concerts he goes to perform at mainly at church and secondary school functions and hence this form of income is also irregular as it is dependent on whether or not he gets invited for these functions. All in all the total possible income M4J can earn from all these sources in a month is EUR 90. This constitutes EUR 5 from parents, 5 t-shirts each @ EUR 3 hence EUR 15, one paying live performance bringing in EUR 50 and 10 CDs sold each @ EUR 2 hence EUR 20. Interestingly income from music accounts for the largest proportion of his income i.e. 55% from live performances and 22% from selling CDs.

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Music Creation and Sharing

Fig. 5: Sources of income M4J

In terms of expenditure, in order of priority, M4J spends on servicing a debt with his producer for the videos he produced for him on credit. He spends about EUR 4 per month on this. Next in line is CDs for sale which can cost him approximately EUR 6, he then supports his parents with some money which comes to about EUR 10 per month and also provides support to a close friends family who are in a very dire situation and most times have no food to eat; he estimates EUR 30 on this. All the remaining expenses are then at par in terms of priority and these include busfare (EUR 18), lunch (EUR 10), airtime (EUR 15) and barbershop (EUR 2). This totals to EUR 95 which comes to slightly more than his highest possible income in a month. This means that when he earns less he is forced to prioritise in order to survive. It is interesting to note that despite music being the most important or having highest priority over all other expenses, the proportion spent on it is the smallest. In reality it only holds the highest priority because it is a debt that he has to service or honour otherwise M4J is hard pressed to cater for other basic needs and as such cannot invest as much in his music as he would like to. He currently does not save any money as there are many more demands and needs that even exceed his income. However he would like to be able to do so one day. Other expenses that are not regular include purchase of clothes and shoes which M4J says are very important for him as a musician and if he had more money he

would spend more on this. He says that a good pair of second hand trousers can cost him EUR 8, t-shirts for about EUR 6 each and shoes for about EUR 15 each. These he buys as often as he comes across something he admires but only if he has some extra money at that particular point in time that he can afford to spend. If he had more disposable income, M4J says he would invest more in his music. This is because music has provided him with a source of income and as such he has been able to support his family, especially his mother and brother and it has subsequently proven to his family that one can make a living from music. M4J would be willing to pay or spend on training in vocals and marketing. He feels he would be able to make better music and earn more as a result. The most expensive item that he has spent on in his music making process is the production of his CD covers, which cost him KES 7,000. If the features he needs for his music creation were put in a phone, M4J says he would pay whatever price it goes for. This is because he would be able to do whatever he wants in his music process at whatever time and at his convenience. Moreover, he would be very happy to do his own production as well as produce for other upcoming artistes.

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Fig. 6: Expense items M4J

The music creation process


The diagram below shows M4Js music creation process from inspiration to the finished product. The specific steps he takes when creating music are not done in isolation hence there is usually the involvement of family or friends on one hand and professionals such as other musicians and producers on the other hand. Different steps therefore fall into different quadrants
Fig 7: Music Creation Process M4J

of the diagram depending on which persons have more influence at that stage. In terms of the money spent during music creation, recording the audio costs him roughly EUR 50. This money is paid to the producer for editing, mastering,

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recording and downloading the music. To produce the video, it costs him roughly EUR 80. This caters for the transport to the location of shooting of the video, the tapes and the camera, editing and downloading. These are the cheapest rates he is able to get. In order to pay for this he has in most instances been able to obtain sponsorship from well-wishers, but for the current single, he is paying for it himself through credit extended to him by his producers. According to M4J, local producers will often not breakdown the costs of each part of the recording for the musicians. When approached for a particular service they often quote a round figure that the musician will need to pay.

M4J feels that this kind of investment pays back in a number of ways: since as more people get to hear his music, he may end up receiving many more invitations to perform at live concerts or events which in return will give him a lot of exposure. Some of these live gigs are paying which is a plus, but the opportunity to perform for free at charitable events is also a way for him to give back to his community. In addition, these invitations provide him with an opportunity to sell his CDs even though at a throw away price (Between EUR 1 and 2 each) since most performances may be in schools or local community events where people cannot afford to pay more.

Sharing music
Below is a sociogram that shows circles of influence and interaction.

Fig 8: Circles of Influence and Interaction in Music Creation M4J

The diagram above shows the different players or individuals involved in M4Js music creation process from idea generation up till the time when he shares his finished music. The circles from the middle going out represent the various steps in the music creation process and within each circle the symbols that stand for the various influences at that stage have been indicated. (See key on left hand side). M4J draws insipiration for his music from church (Bible) and from the issues in the community, hence the arrows showing input into this stage. Similarly when writing his lyrics he uses the Bible and sometimes

also gets advice from other professionals for example if he is writing a song on HIV/AIDS he may want to consult a specialist in that field to ensure that his lyrics aptly capture the facts that people need to know. He then goes on to the chorusing stage at which point in time he shares the music with some family members and they in turn give their initial critique on his song hence this is a two way direct sharing; he shares his music and he gets feedback. At stage 3 and 4, beat and rhythm development and musical arrangement respectively its basically between him and his producer so at 3 he shares his music with the producer who listens and then generates possible beat for it and at 4
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A Study of the Informal Music Industry in Africa

the producer provides more input into how the music should all be arranged. It is at this stage that he leaves the producer to work on the music and come back to him with a close to finished product. At 6 he now shares his music with a wider audience and other than family this includes friends and fellow musicians who give him some ideas and suggestions. M4J then makes a decision on what ideas to take up and together with the help of the producer he refines the music and the producer then records the finished product. In terms of sharing finished product, M4J does this through church functions, school functions, other general concerts and community forums. Although this is a two way mechanism the input coming in from these four channels is illustrated by the use of a broken line because as much as he performs for these audiences he sometimes does not get any pay for it and in some instances the pay is also meagre. Note also that sharing channels such as TV, Radio and Internet are not yet a reality for M4J despite having recorded some music hence as an upcoming artiste there is a lot more to be done in terms of marketing and promotion to get his music out to a wider audience.

Challenges
Other than the obvious financial constraints of day to day life and the lack of finances to invest more in his music in terms of recording and other professional training and support, M4J sometimes faces negative criticism especially from people who do not believe in his work and in his abilities. The other main challenge is that his producer works in Mombasa and as such recording is done at the producers convenience and timing. This takes him back quite a bit as there is a lot of time wasted while he waits to record. Currently, he has no way of solving these problems so he bears with the situation. He feels that if he was able to record himself it would help alleviate this problem.

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Music Creation and Sharing

M4J (Made For Jesus) Wambu Ayal (Member of Koko Band) Tash (Member of Koko Band) Erick (Member of Yunasi Band) Ngalah (Member of Yunasi Band) Eric and Kennedy Jackston

Wambu
Table 8: Musician Profile - Wambu

History as a musician
ambui who likes to be referred to as Wambu first became interested in music as a possible career to venture into while she was in secondary school. Her entry into the music industry was initially through school and church activities; she was an active member of the choir and drama clubs and often received positive comments from people who encouraged her to take her music talent seriously. She started rapping in 2003 when she was in Form

2 and gaining more exposure by hanging out at the production studio with some musician friends. Wambu who comes from a single parent home initially faced a lot of opposition from her mother as she is the eldest child and the only one with an interest in music. Despite the opposition she was determined to continue with her music. After completing secondary school, she landed a job with Nestle Foods where she worked for a period of
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A Study of the Informal Music Industry in Africa

one year although her heart was not in it. Her main reason for working there was to enable her save some money which she used as capital to launch herself into the music industry. She used this money to record her first two singles and since then has continued to popularize herself and eke a living out of music through live performances.

Wambus Music
She describes her genre of music as hip hop genge. Genge is a local version of rap/hip hop and she says that she does this fusion as opposed to pure hip hop as it is known in the western part of the world due to her audiences preferences. Wambu makes music because it is simply a passion which she is driven and inspired by. She sings to herself and also listens to herself through play-backs of self recorded music. When composing her music, she considers what she would want to hear in a song and the message that she wishes to send across, as well as what she believes her fans would want to hear. Her fans include her family, her friends and people in the neighbourood plus all those who normally turn up for her live performances. Of all her fans, family is the most important to her.

Through her music, Wambu hopes to be able to earn a good living and live a comfortable life. She also hopes to support her family more for instance her mother has dreams of one day owning her own NGO and Wambu would like to help her establish it. In addition Wambu would want to earn enough money from her music that would enable her raise enough capital to start her own business preferably a club. Coming from a low income neighbourhood in Huruma, she also wishes to extend her support to those around her who need financial support and particulary support other upcoming artistes to grow with her. All in all Wambu dreams of becoming a star in the music industry one day. Wambu draws her inspiration from herself, her mother and the community around her. She says that the community has some influence on the kind of music she writes and creates since they are her market and because she intends to make money out of her music she has to seriously consider what they desire in order to remain relevant. She also spends some time with her friends and asks them what kind of music they would like to listen to, accepts ideas and seeks opinions on her creations. She however ensures that she weaves into her music her own sentiments on relevant educational material. Her role model as relates to life in general is Nobel laureate Wangari Maathai. She has no specific role model in the music industry.

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Music Creation and Sharing

Mobile phone usage


Until recently, Wambu owned a Nokia 1500 but it has since been stolen. She now owns a Sony Ericcson which she says has all the basic features of a mobile phone and some extra ones such as Bluetooth, Infrared, Audio Recorder, which are the most important to her. She also says that the Sony Ericsson has a large memory which she appreciates. In addition she likes the Internet feature for e-mail, chat and downloading content. She cannot think of any features in her phone that she does not like or that she finds irrelevant. For her next phone she would consider features such as a good camera and video recorder, long battery life as well as large memory capacity to enable recording and storage. Wambu describes her mobile phone use experience so far as fun because it has enabled her freedom of choice in terms of what kind of music to play or listen to and store. Also through mobile phones she has been able to store a variety of media, and record conversations. In terms of learning how to use a mobile phone in general, Wambu learns from friends. For instance she learnt how to the Nokia 5300 from a friend who also owned one. Since the learning process was quite simple, she learnt to use it within a day. So far Wambu has made significant use of her mobile phone in her music creation process. Specifically she uses her phone to browse and chat with friends and fellow artistes about music, download content which can be useful for her music making, record her compositions and listen to the playbacks so as to be able to practice and perfect. She also uses her phone to share her music via Bluetooth or Infrared. number. The amount earned from these shows is also not consistent; some pay better than others. Wambu says she has absolutely no other way of making money currently not even some financial support from her mother who is a single parent and does not work at all at the moment. Wambu is therefore the breadwinner of the family. Although not a regular source of income, on average, Wambu estimates her monthly earnings based on a good month and a less productive one, as ranging between EUR 140 to EUR 600. This is calculated by considering that she may do between 2 and 6 shows a month and that she may earn anything between EUR 70 and EUR 100 from each. It is important to note however that this income is highly irregular hence although it may appear higher than the average monthly income earned (EUR 70) by a low income person in the slums who has a regular job e.g. watchman, clerk, waiter, etc, at least the latter is more consistent and certain. In terms of expenses Wambu estimates that per month she spends between EUR 390 and EUR 410. This appears significantly higher than her lower income estimate of EUR 140. This means that prioritization often has to take place and that in less productive months Wambu and her family have to do without quite a lot of their needs and wants. In order of priority her expenses (on the lower estimates) include food and other household expenses (EUR 70), followed by Rent and Electricity (EUR 55 and EUR 10 respectively), at number 3 is clothes, accessories, and hair grooming which accounts for EUR 100 followed by transport and lunch at EUR 80 and airtime for her phone at EUR 75 both at number 5. Hair, clothes and other accessories are quite important to Wambu because she says that as a musician and a performing one at that it is important to look the part i.e. like a star. Music is not a monthly regular expense for her at the moment hence does not appear in this list but ideally she says that this should be number 3 after her food, rent and electricity. She would like to budget for this regularly but in most instances there is nothing left after catering for number 1 and 2. The following chart shows her monthly expenditure proportions:

Income and Expenditure


Wambu says that her main source of income is performing at shows or concerts. This she however says is not a regular source of income since in some months she may not get any opportunities to perform at shows while in other months she may get a good

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A Study of the Informal Music Industry in Africa

Fig. 9: Expense Items - Wambu

In terms of music expenditures this has been more of one-offs than a regular expense. For her two singles she spent EUR 100 for each. She is currently trying to save for her videos and she anticipates that this will cost her approximately EUR 250 for a single. This she feels would be a worthwhile investment because lack of recording and videos has limited her reach such that she is well known in her neighbourhood but not nationally. She has also realized that in the industry there is much more value associated with videos of music as opposed to just audio. Other expenses though not regular but related to music are expenditure on promotional trips. For instance Wambu is currently planning a trip to Arusha in Tanzania and another one to Migori in Kenya. The purpose of these trips is to popularize her music and seek opportunities for live performances. She anticipates that these will cost her approximately EUR 80 (for a one week trip) and EUR 30 respectively. Other expenses include medical or health related expenses for her and her family which are not regular; they are dealt with as emergencies and are hence paid for as and when they occur. Wambu also sometimes spends some money on leisure activities for herself such as going out to party with her friends once in a while and for every such outing she may spend about EUR 15. However she says that lately she has had to cut back on this because of other pressing needs and the effort to invest in some savings for her promotional trips.

If she had more disposable income Wambu says she would invest more in her music in terms of videos as well as producing and distributing CDs as music is her only way of earning a living and she is quite serious about this as a life long career. In line with this she would also spend more on her clothes, accessories and grooming so as to feel and look the part of a musician. In future she would also like to have her own studio stocked with all the necessary equipment, record and expose other upcoming artistes and also have her own club where she and other artistes music can be played and live concerts can take place.

The music creation process


The diagram below shows Wambus music creation process from inspiration to the finished product. The specific steps she takes when creating music are not done in isolation hence there is usually the involvement of family or friends on one hand and professionals such as other musicians and producers on the other hand. Different steps therefore fall into different quadrants of the diagram depending on which persons have more influence at that stage.

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Music Creation and Sharing

Fig 10: Music Creation Process - Wambu

According to Wambu, most music related expenditure is that which is related to recording or use of studio or production resources. In terms of the money spent during music creation, recording the audio costs her roughly EUR 100. This money is paid to the producer. To produce the video, it costs roughly EUR 250 to 300 though she has never done this before. In order to pay for this she has to save the money earned from her live performances. Wambu feels that this kind of investment will pay back because with audio and video recording she will have

the opportunity to market herself more, nationally and internationally beyond just her neighbourhood where she is already very well known. This will enable her sell her CDs and get more opportunities for live performances. If the features for music creation and recording were put in a phone, Wambu says that she would be very willing to invest in it and she estimates that such a phone would probably cost between EUR 200 and EUR 400.

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A Study of the Informal Music Industry in Africa

Sharing music
Below is a sociogram that shows circles of influence and interaction.
Fig. 10: Circles of influence and interaction in music creation - Wambu

The diagram above shows the different players or individuals involved in Wambus music creation process from idea generation up until she shares her finished music. The circles from the middle going out represent the various steps in the music creation process and within each circle the symbols that stand for the various influences at that stage have been indicated. (See key on left hand side). Wambu draws her inspiration from her family (specifically her mother), and the community around her through the day to day issues that they face. Her next step is chorusing at which she involves family to get their initial thoughts and then writes the lyrics for the rest of the song based on issues in the community. At 4 and 3 she works with the producer and at 6 she shares with fellow musicians, friends as well as family so as to receive more critique from them. Once this is done she refines and then records both with the help of the producer. Her channels for sharing her finished music are mainly through concerts and performances at clubs and this is mostly for pay hence solid lines both in terms of give and take. She also shares her music through other community and artistic forums for example the WAPI forum organized by the British Council which gives exposure to upcoming artistes. Such forums pay back in terms of experience and exposure though not much in terms of pay hence the broken line. Because Wambu has not recorded much of her music, she is yet to tap into radio and TV. She
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says she is also keen to make use of the Internet at some point but would need some help to get started.

Challenges
The main challenge that Wambu faces is financial. Lack of sufficient finances impacts on her inability to access good producers and other related services, access to equipment, limits marketing and promotional activities as well as limits the kind of production she can undertake e.g. in terms of audio versus visual (video). Lack of finances also makes it impossible for her to source for legal services so as to protect herself from piracy and other related industry problems. Other than finances the other main challenge that Wambu faces is that of gender discrimination. Hers is a male dominated industry whereby the people of influence and power are mostly male and these include producers, DJs, club owners, promoters, media personalities, etc. As such these players tend to demand sexual favours in exchange for whatever service she may require during music creation or sharing and distribution. She survives through this by singling out and working with focused and mature producers and promoters as well as maintaining a tough stance and being consistent and unrelenting in her search for the necessary support and services. She also tries to ensure that her music is of good quality so that market

Music Creation and Sharing

demand will force the players to give her a chance. In addition, Wambu says that media houses are very biased and only give air time to the more established artistes. Promoters and big corporations that sometimes carry out marketing and promotion services, talent searches and competions, gigs and shows and offer financial aid are also biased and practice nepotism. Many upcoming artistes like her are therefore often left out. On the other hand she considers local radio stations and fellow upcoming artistes as good judges of talent and unbiased supporters of the cause. In her opinion, the big corporations should play a part in sponsoring upcoming artistes; even simple shows that do not necessarily provide any monetary reward to the artistes can still go a long way in propelling them further in their musical career.

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A Study of the Informal Music Industry in Africa

M4J (Made For Jesus) Wambu Ayal (Member of Koko Band) Tash (Member of Koko Band) Erick (Member of Yunasi Band) Ngalah (Member of Yunasi Band) Eric and Kennedy Jackston

Ayal (Member of Koko Band)


Table 9: Musician Profile - Ayal

History as a musician
Ayal ventured into music simply because it is his passion. He started singing as a youngster but did not take it seriously until he went to secondary school where he joined the school choir and through this realized he was talented. Through public auditions, he later progressively joined other various choirs (e.g. Utalii Hotel Choir, NHIF Choir, and KEMRI Choir). Because of his talent he was eventually selected to
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join the National Mass Choir (popularly known as the Muungano Choir). Ayal started making his own music in 1999 and a few years ago (2006) he met up with some friends who had similar interests in music and they decided to form a band which they named Koko. He has been performing with this band since. It is through Koko Band that Ayal makes music to earn a living.

Music Creation and Sharing

KOKO group members love for music started at a tender age and they have over the years devoted most of their time in acquiring musical instruments, and developing their playing and dancing skills. Ayal says that Koko thrives on the skills that individual group members possess. The group consists of: Kamaich: - A dancer, choreographer, soft percussionist who plays the Djembe and Calabash, he is also a vocalist. George Osiro: - Solo guitarist, Flutist and a Nyatiti player, also into song writing and arranging as well as vocals. Sam Ayal: - Rhythm guitarist, a songwriter and arranger, he plays soft percussions and is also a vocalist. Jagas Aguoga: - Plays Nyatiti, Piano, soft percussions, he is a dancer and a choreographer and a vocalist too Tash Oduor: - The Band Leader; a vocalist, plays Orutu, Calabash, Soft Percussions. Also a songwriter and arranger and together with George and Ayal, take charge as the lead vocalists in the group.

Ayals Music
Ayal defines his music genre as Afro-fusion, African or Afro Jazz. It comprises traditional African music blended with Western style music and techniques. His band, KOKO mostly play a blend of Afro beats and Western music Afro Fusion, Jazz Music and a blend of Kenyan Benga rhythm, with some modern harmony in Luo, Swahili, Sheng (a form of slang), English, Maasai, Kikuyu and mixes various Kenyan indigenous dialects to pass the message across Kenya, East African communities and the world at large. KOKO is a Luo (a local Kenyan dialect) word meaning Noise. When he and his fellow band members were growing up in Nairobi slums, many youth thought that African music sounded like Noise and that they would not want to be associated with it. It is against this background that Koko Members started embracing exposing African cultural music, dances and instruments. Koko incorporate youth issues, language, and dance style as a way of conserving African culture. They also acknowledge that arranged noise has been used positively to champion for the rights of the people and as a voice for the voiceless. Ayal considers his audience to be that which understands and appreciates music hence does not
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A Study of the Informal Music Industry in Africa

target any specific audience but rather anyone who appreciates African music. It is for all. He and his band make music based on social issues e.g. rape, corruption. He perceives the role of his music as educative against social ills in the community to show the community how to live better. Ayal reports an increased interest in the type of positive or good music that he and his band produce from the community and in the media. He feels that this is due to an increased appreciation for meaningful music that has a message. According to Ayal, he is priviledged and happy to be part of a band. He says that the group has a long term vision to stay together as long as they can even though each member may be free to pursue individual projects. An advantage that their group has is the ability of group members to play multiple instruments as well as sing and this enables them to step in and play each others designated roles as and when the need arises. Ayal also enjoys playing with other professional musicians due to the feedback and self-improvement tips that he can get from them. Because he feels music is new everyday and that an artist can always reach a higher level, the need to collaborate and exchange ideas is critical because it is all about getting something new and fresh every day.

He feels that the community fully influences the kind of music that the group creates given that the group is part and parcel of the community but, he also feels that their music influences the community in return.

Mobile phone usage


Ayal has a Nokia 1100 mobile phone which he mostly uses for making and receiving calls, text messaging, and composing tunes. It is a basic phone with fewer features than he would like and he uses all the features on the phone. The composer feature is one that he likes and uses frequently as it helps him to record music ideas. A phone that he would like to have in future is similar to a palmtop that he once borrowed from a friend. This phone enabled him to record his voice and play it on a PC and later add on other parts. He would like a phone that would enable him do this. He prefers a phone with polyphonic ringtones and a large storage capacity or ability, video capability, and customizable ringtones and other personal attributes. So far Ayal has only owned Nokia mobile phones and finds them very user friendly having never encountered any problems in learning to use the phones. Overall, he describes his experience of using mobile phones as fun.

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Music Creation and Sharing

The ability to communicate or interact (personally/ professionally) via his mobile phone and stay in touch with his friends is what makes it fun. In terms of learning how to use mobile phones, he taught himself to use his current phone by reading and following the instructions on the manual. He however also says that he learns how to use mobile phones from others (who also learnt from others). He recommends or prefers a phone with an internal tutorial or manual which the user can use for self instruction.

because Ayal is not really interested in this line of work. He only falls back to this when music has failed to pay and times are really hard otherwise he would not opt to do this. In terms of amount of money earned per month from his sources of income Ayal gives some estimates. Assuming he and his band are able to do 4 live performances in a month each of them paying between EUR 200 to 250 then they are able to earn between EUR 800 and 1000 as a band. What however comes to him is much lower than that because they first save 10% of this amount for servicing the band e.g. paying for any band overheads, repair of instruments, etc. Next they allocate 20% to pay band extras as in many instances they hire some individual artistes to play with them, and then the remaining 70% is split amongst the 6 band members. Ayal therefore ends up making approximately EUR 93 to 116 per month from the live performances of the band. From music teaching he approximates EUR 6 per month assuming 3 students each coming twice a week at EUR 1 per lesson. This however is not included in total income earned per month since this year he has not had any students. From the odd jobs, assuming 2 odd jobs in a month which bring in between EUR 150 to EUR 200, Ayal can get EUR 60 to 80 since they normally do these odd jobs as a group and split the earnings equally. Note that most of the Koko band members have skills that are inclined towards interior design, renovation and repairs. Ayals total monthly income therefore ranges from EUR 153 to 196. The chart alongside shows Ayals monthly income based on his highest possible income.

Income and Expenditure


Ayals main source of income is from live performances by the band. Earnings are divided equally amongst the band members. This he says however is not a regular source of income since the band is still quite young and hence does not have consistent shows that they can count on; sometimes they have a lot and sometimes there is nothing. His other ways of making money are teaching music and doing odd jobs such as painting or other simple interior design jobs and repairs. None of these two sources of income are regular. For the music lessons, Ayal says that his students are not consistent because they are also from very poor backgrounds; they may come for a whole week then drop out because they have been unable to raise the fees. Even those who stay on may eventually be unable to pay and he ends up teaching them for free. In addition this source of income has not been fruitful at all for him this year; after the post election violence that rocked the country, he has not been able to get any new students. The odd jobs are also classified under irregular income simply

Fig. 11: Sources of Income - Ayal

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A Study of the Informal Music Industry in Africa

In terms of expenditure, Ayals main expenditure items in order of priority and with corresponding amounts are: Food (EUR 30) Hair (EUR 6), Rent (EUR 25), Electricity (EUR 2) clothes and personal grooming (EUR 20) and support to family for siblings education (EUR 48) at number one, then followed by credit i.e. airtime for his phone (EUR 30), transport (EUR 20) and Internet Browsing (EUR 60) all at number 2, then College fees for himself (student at Kenya Music Conservatoire) (EUR 24) at number 3 then finally Music materials such as books, new strings for his guitar, etc at number 4 (EUR 5). His minimum total expenses (EUR 216) are higher than his highest possible income hence prioritization must take place and sometimes not all needs are catered for. Support to family ranks high as Ayal says that his father has no stable job and his mother makes at most EUR 3 per day selling cabbages yet he has four siblings all of whom are still in school. Other expenses though not regular include

contributions for band servicing especially in times when they are not able to raise enough money from the gigs. In addition there is recreation for him, his family and friends whereby he can spend about EUR 20 to 30 per outing. Similarly trips to his rural area to visit relatives which cost him about EUR 100 per trip. Currently Ayal says that he makes an effort to save some money although this is not a regular and specific amount. The most he has ever had in savings at any one point in time is EUR 150 and the least is EUR 5. If he had more disposable income, he would purchase more musical instruments (currently owns an acoustic guitar). He would also like to invest in permanent assets such as buying or building his own home, open his own music studio and school of music which will offer reasonable or subsidized rates for people from the low income community who cannot afford what is currently being offered in the market.

Fig. 12: Expense Items Ayal

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Music Creation and Sharing

The music creation process


The diagram below shows Ayals music creation process from inspiration to the finished product. The specific steps he takes when creating music are not done in isolation hence there is usually the involvement of family or friends on one hand and professionals such as other musicians and producers on the other hand. Different steps therefore fall into different quadrants of the diagram depending on which persons have more influence at that stage. So far Koko band has not recorded their music hence step 8 is not yet a reality for them. This is due to financial constraints and also their inability to find a producer who really understands their music and their purpose and hence can really add value to the production of it. They however estimate that it would cost them about EUR 120 to record a single track. The most expensive instrument owned by the group so far is an acoustic guitar which Ayal saved for and bought over a period of two years. Other instruments have been bought through contributions from the group. Given the chance, Ayal would spend extra on a mobile music studio to avoid the exorbitant fees charged by producers. He says he would offer free production services to younger aspiring musicians in the community. He estimates that such a mobile phone with all the features required for music creation, it would cost more than the most expensive phone on the market given that it would be a stand-alone studio.

Fig 13: Music Creation Process - Ayal

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A Study of the Informal Music Industry in Africa

Sharing music
Below is a sociogram that shows circles of influence and interaction.
Fig. 14: Circles of influence and interaction in music creation Ayal

The diagram above shows the different players or individuals involved in Ayals music creation process from idea generation up until he shares his finished music. The circles from the middle going out represent the various steps in the music creation process and within each circle the symbols that stand for the various influences at that stage have been indicated. (See key on left hand side). According to Ayal, the main way in which Koko generates its ideas for music is from the issues in the surrounding community and they seek to address these issues through their music. The lyric writing is also very much based from community issues and influences. Beat and rhythm development is done by the band members together as a group as they all have expertise in playing various instruments. The indirect influence here (broken line) is thus of music schools / teachers since some of them are enrolled in professional music schools. Ayal says that any given band member can come up with a beat or rhythm and then ask the other band members what they can add to it and as they play along they are able to develop the beat and rhythm. They then arrange the music again without any external

influences save for the indirect one from music schools and teachers that have enhanced their expertise. They then share with family, friends, fellow musicians and the community at large for critique before they finalise and share. Step 8 is not yet a reality for them but they envisage that they would need the input of a producer if they were to record their music. Sharing channels for Koko include Internet, Radio and TV, and live performances at concerts as well as at various community forums with the latter (live performances) being the main one and out of which they mostly get paid. Radio and TV is limited as signified by the broken lines since they do not have recorded music and any features thus have been through media coverage of live events which have then made it to the mass media. Similarly despite Koko having made the effort to use the internet for sharing and marketing purposes., this is limited as they have only one short audio clip and a video recording of a live performance which has not done much to really sell their music. Sites that they have made use of are my space as well as sell a band. http://www.sellaband.com/kokoband/

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Music Creation and Sharing

Challenges
The challenges cited by Ayal in making music include limited distribution of music leading to limited economic ability. The expectations placed on artists by family and friends are also high because of the perceived high status. Another challenge despite the development of the industry over the years is the low appreciation of music relative to other occupations as a profession. There is still therefore little social support for professional artists. Other challenges include bonding as a group; not knowing the individual talent level of band members, low skill level of members in playing the various instruments (mainly when they started out), and the groups internal power sharing. They solve the groups power sharing by allocating specific roles and responsibilities to members. The problems outside his scope (in terms of solutions) include piracy and his unpopularity as an artist or his group due to the different tastes in music by the audience at large. To help him overcome the challenges in music making, Ayal feels Government support would play a key role in raising the social profile and appreciation of music locally and abroad i.e. Kenyan music. He is also of the opinion that financial motivation by the Government would help artists in being in greater control of their wellbeing.

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A Study of the Informal Music Industry in Africa

M4J (Made For Jesus) Wambu Ayal (Member of Koko Band) Tash (Member of Koko Band) Erick (Member of Yunasi Band) Ngalah (Member of Yunasi Band) Eric and Kennedy Jackston

Tash (Member of Koko Band)


Table 10: Musician Profile: Tash

History as a musician

nlike most musicians, Tash did not start developing his music talent at an early age. He appreciated music but never had the opportunity to engage in activities that could nurture his talent. He started making music as an adult in 2005 and together with his friends formed Koko Band in 2006.

KOKO group members love for music started at a tender age and they have over the years devoted most of their time in acquiring musical instruments and developing their playing and dancing skills. According to Tash, Koko thrives on the skills that individual group members possess.

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Music Creation and Sharing

The group consists of: Kamaich: - A dancer, choreographer, soft percussionist who plays the Djembe and Calabash, he is also a vocalist. George Osiro: - Solo guitarist, Flutist and a Nyatiti player, also into song writing and arranging as well as vocals. Sam Ayal: - Rhythm guitarist, a songwriter and arranger, he plays soft percussions and is also a vocalist. Jagas Aguoga: - Plays Nyatiti, Piano, soft percussions, he is a dancer and a choreographer and a vocalist too Tash Oduor: - The Band Leader; a vocalist, plays Orutu, Calabash, Soft Percussions. Also a songwriter and arranger and together with George and Ayal, take charge as the lead vocalists in the group.

English, Maasai, Kikuyu and mixes various Kenyan indigenous dialects to pass the message across Kenya, East African communities and the world at large. Tash makes this kind of music primarily for his own satisfaction, to impress his listeners and also to develop an original kind of African style of music. As part of a band, they desire to transform Afro-fusion music and teach the youth that Kenyan Afro-fusion music is interesting and enjoyable and that it is better than western music. KOKO is a Luo (a local Kenyan dialect) word meaning Noise. When he and his fellow band members were growing up in Nairobi slums, many youth thought that African music sounded like Noise and that they would not want to be associated with it. It is against this background that Koko Members started embracing exposing African cultural music, dances and instruments. Koko incorporate youth issues, language, and dance style as a way of conserving African culture. They also acknowledge that arranged noise has been used positively to champion for the rights of the people and as a voice for the voiceless. Despite belonging to Koko and being the band leader, Tash sees himself as an individual artist. Right now however, he believes that being part of a band offers him many more opportunities due to collective responsibility. Band members pressure him to improve his quality of music; financial pressures are shared; one learns from other band members in terms of playing other instruments, and different ways of making and
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Tashs music
Tash makes afro-fusion music using African indeginous or traditional musical intruments and tries to develop an original type or style of music that is uniquely Kenyan. His band, KOKO mostly play a blend of Afro beats and Western music Afro Fusion, Jazz Music and a blend of Kenyan Benga rhythm, with some modern harmony in Luo, Swahili, Sheng (a form of slang),

A Study of the Informal Music Industry in Africa

developing music. Tash belives that by belonging to a band, a musician can acquire many skills which can later enable him to leave and form another band, or move on to a solo career that will be more easily successful. Tash plays the Orutu and has been learning how to play the drums, though he is not so enthusiastic about it. He desires more to learn how to play the bass guitar and says it would be wonderful if someone helped or taught him.

time to go through the phone and plays around with it or experiments until he learns how each feature works.

Income and Expenditure


Tashs main source of income is from his graphic design business. He is a freelance designer in posters, murals, illustrations, etc. He works on a contractual basis with individuals or companies. This he says is not a regular source of income because as much as he is sure that something will always come in from this source, it is still somewhat unpredictable because the number of jobs and amount paid varies significantly from time to time. His other sources of income are earnings from live performances with Koko band and doing odd jobs from time to time. These he also says are not regular sources because they have not established themselves enough as a band in order to get consistent gigs and also the odd jobs are just a way of surving when times are really tough so as to make ends meet. Tash estimates that from his grapic design work he can earn between EUR 100 and EUR 150 in a bad month and between EUR 300 and EUR 400 in a good month. From live performances assuming 4 in a month each bringing in between EUR 200 and 250 and after deducting 10% band servicing, 20% for extras hired, and sharing the remaining 70% between the 6 band members he can earn between EUR 93 and EUR 116 per month. From odd jobs he can make between EUR 30 and 80 a month. Therfore total income ranges from EUR 223 to EUR 596. The chart below shows proportions earned from the various sources based on highest possible income.

Mobile phone usage


Tashs first phone was a Motorola which simply stopped working one day. He has since then bought three Nokias. His current phone is a Nokia 2300. He describes it as having a colour screen, nice ringtones, phone book, sms, and alarm and concludes by saying that he finds it very user friendly and durable. What Tash appreciates about his phone is that he can set different ringtones for different people and that he can set the alarm once and for all so that it stays all week and alerts him every day. Besides this, he mainly uses his phone for making calls and hardly uses the text messaging feature. Other than some settings and features that he is not quite sure of, he has tried all the features in his phone. Tash hopes to have e-mail in his next phone as he greatly uses it to enhance his businesses. He also hopes that his next phone will allow him to block unwanted callers. In addition, it is important that his next phone has large memory capacity in order to allow him to download and store content in his phone and to allow him faster processing speeds. Message settings and the general phone settings are the features that he has found somewhat difficult to use. He thinks this is probably because he has not taken time to understand them. As a whole his mobile experience use has been fun. It has opened him up to a whole new world; mainly to tremendous business opportunities. He has been able to network and in his personal analysis, business picked up much more after he acquired a phone. In terms of learning how to use phones, with his first phone, he read the phone manual to be able to get to know how it worked. Nowadays, since he has the basic knowledge, he just takes

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Music Creation and Sharing

Despite graphic design source accounting for the highest proportion of income, Tash hopes to one day earn enough of a living from his music so that he can put less emphasis on his current graphic design career and concentrate on music. He believes that there is a future in Kenyan Afro-fusion music and with more live performances with the band, it can become well paying. In terms of expenditure per month, this comes to between EUR 276.4 and EUR 324.4 in total. This includes (in order of priority), food and other household items (EUR 90), rent (EUR 45), electicity (EUR 3) and water (EUR 2) at number one, then followed by transport (EUR 40), airtime (EUR 30) and internet browsing (EUR 12) at number two, third comes school fees for his children (EUR 13), fees for guitar lessons for himself (EUR 12), fourth is barbershop (EUR 240), and finally comes health expenses (EUR 5) and support to his grandmother (EUR 14). The chart below shows proportions of expenditure based on expenditure estimates:

His lowest expenditure estimate is higher than lowest possible income estimate meaning that prioritization may often have to take place when income is low. Other non-regular expenses include trips and other recreational activities for him and his family (EUR 15 per outing). Tash also says that he spends money on clothes, shoes, gifts and other related items for self and family as and when the need arises but cannot really give a fair estimate of this as he does not keep track of this expense. Tash makes an effort to save money although this is not regular nor is it specific in terms of amount. Lately it has been quite difficult for him to save due to so many pressing needs and insufficient income to cater for all of them. However the highest amount of savings he has ever had at any one point in time is EUR 500 and the least is EUR 20. If he had more disposable income, Tash says he would invest in setting up a graphic design company and a recording studio which would act as a platform for him to achieve other dreams in life and generally have financial freedom. He would like for instance to own rental homes over and above his own home and some matatus. He would also like to one day invest in stocks.

Fig. 15: Expense Items - Tash

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A Study of the Informal Music Industry in Africa

The music creation process


The diagram below shows Tashs music creation process from inspiration to the finished product. The specific steps he takes when creating music are not done in isolation hence there is usually the involvement of family or friends on one hand and professionals such as other musicians and producers on the other hand. Different steps therefore fall into different quadrants of the diagram depending on which persons have more influence at that stage. Step 8 is not yet a reality for Tash and his band given that financial constraints have made it difficult for them to record. In addition finding a producer who really understands their music and can share in their vision is proving to be difficult. Tash however estimates that to record one song it would probably cost them about EUR 150. Most of it is for studio use but there are also other costs of hiring instruments and probably those to play the same instruments. An album would cost EUR 600 to 700. According to Tash the producer often does not give a breakdown of the studio costs, but he assumes the various services paid for are recording of the instruments, vocals, brushing the vocals, mastering then recording. Tash also says that doing live performances costs quite a lot. For example, the lowest priced PA system for hire costs around EUR 200. Hiring of instruments and the people to play is also a cost they have to constantly contend with because they currently do not own much in terms of instruments. Despite these high costs that they are sometimes unable to meet, Tash believes that this investment pays back. This is in terms of exposure, people getting to appreciate your music and opening up of more perfoming opportunities that could be well paying. Given the money, the band is keen and would want to invest in video recording of all their albums. The most expensive music making tool they have purchased (an individual band member) is a guitar which cost EUR 160. Since music instruments are very expensive, they prefer to lease until the day when they will be able to purchase their own. All in all, music is very important to Tash and investment made towards music is rated highly. However, he says that it comes only after he has catered for his family needs. If the music brings in money, it would be able to help meet his immediate familys needs. If the features he needed for his music creation were put in a phone, Tash is positive he would buy the phone at whatever price. As far as he is concerned, it is an investment he is sure would definitely pay back.

Fig. 16: Music Creation Process - Tash

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Music Creation and Sharing

Sharing music
Below is a sociogram that shows circles of influence and interaction.
Fig. 17: Circles of influence and interaction in music creation Tash

The diagram above shows the different players or individuals involved in Tashs music creation process from idea generation up until he shares his finished music. The circles from the middle going out represent the various steps in the music creation process and within each circle the symbols that stand for the various influences at that stage have been indicated. (See key on left hand side). According to Tash, Koko has different ways in which they create their music. He talks of one of the ways as when they come together as a band for practice sessions and just start playing instruments and out of that a song is developed. This is the first step in the music creation and the influence here is an indirect one (broken line) from music schools and teachers. After this they write the lyrics for the song the influence or input here being the community since they seek to address societal issues in their music. Next is musical arrangement again without any external influences except for the indirect one from music schools and teachers that have enhanced their expertise. They then share with family, friends, fellow musicians and the community at large for critique before they finalise and share. Step 8 is not yet a reality for them but they envisage that they would need the input of a producer if they were to record their music. Sharing channels for Koko include Internet, Radio and TV, and live performances at concerts as well as at various community forums with the latter (live performances) being the main one and out of which they mostly

get paid. Radio and TV is limited as signified by the broken lines since they do not have recorded music and any features thus have been through media coverage of live events which have then made it to the mass media. Similarly despite Koko having made the effort to use the internet for sharing and marketing purposes., this is limited as they have only one short audio clip and a video recording of a live performance which has not done much to really sell their music. Sites that they have made use of are my space as well as sell a band. http://www.sellaband.com/kokoband/

Challenges
Lack of finances to record their music is a huge challenge for Koko. This limits them in terms of exposure and income. For instance the band has a web page on myspace and sell-a-band where they have short audio and video clips posted, including some short stories about themselves and the band. Having these clips on the net often generates interest about their songs and they sometimes get expressions of interest on specific songs. It is also good because they are able to refer people to their website when they are not able to meet them to perform as part of a process to showcase their ability. Being on the internet has improved their professional image, though they have not been able to make any money from it. Tash feels that the audio and video content is too limited that it has not generated enough interest or benefit for them hence if they could record more it would enable them
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upload more. Lack of recording also instills some fear in the band in that someone else with more resources than they have could one day listen to them at one of their live performances and go and record their music and ideas. This has however not happened to them so far although Tash says he knows of an individual to whom it has occurred. Piracy is also a problem which they feel will impact them negatively in terms of earnings once they record their music. Time is also a huge constraint for Koko band. Most of the band members all hold other jobs besides playing for the band he is in graphic design, there is a doctor, a businessman, an engineer, an architect (mostly freelance). As such honouring rehearsals and practice time requires deep commitment to keep going. In addition, they have to work out time to market the band even with their busy work schedules. Marketing the band is critical since they highly rely on live

performances to make money and gain exposure, so marketing time is a huge challenge. Keeping each other accountable and being willing to sacrifice time towards the practice is how they are managing to handle this challenge so far. Another big challenge is that there are still very few people who appreciate their style of Afro-fusion and it is a big struggle to spread the music and make people understand and appreciate it. They try to teach their friends and audiences so as to help them appreciate the music with the hope that it will catch on as they grow. Tash believes that if more was done to promote and enhance exposure for their kind of music, perhaps even through cultural tourism, many people would get to know about it and learn to appreciate it.

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M4J (Made For Jesus) Wambu Ayal (Member of Koko Band) Tash (Member of Koko Band) Erick (Member of Yunasi Band) Ngalah (Member of Yunasi Band) Eric and Kennedy Jackston

Erick (Member of Yunasi Band)


Table 11: Musician Profile - Erick

Short biography

Ericks music
According to Erick, Yunasi music is user defined. Some may call it pop or world music but he calls its Sesube or Afrofusion. Sesube is an acronym derived form different kinds of music i.e. Se Sega music, Su Sukuti music, Be Benga music. Yunasi music is a fusion of these three. Their music takes sounds and inspirations from local Kenyan communities, cultural styles and languages and fuses those sounds with a European component. The sound is achieved by playing a variety of instruments, both traditional and
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rick is the leader of the Yunasi band. He ventured into music 10 years ago. He plays an intrument known as Riecko (Calabash) and is also currently learning to play the Timbale (drum set) and the guitar. Erick also sings in the band. He has written some of Yunasis songs and is working at the moment on his book of African short stories.

A Study of the Informal Music Industry in Africa

modern. Yunasi developed this unique East African music style in 2004. Erick makes music because of passion for it, as an artistic expression and because of love for it. He also makes music to earn a living. He and the band make music for all and he feels that the kind of music they create transcends all ages and is especially meant to be a bridge across the old and the young generations, bringing them together and can also be enjoyed for many years. His band comprises 8 men from East Africa and a French woman and they sing in several languages including Swahili, English, French, Luo, Kisii and Luhya. As a band they aim to increase the awareness of contemporary Kenyan music both locally and overseas and hope to become one of the best known bands around. YUNASI are determined to bring Kenyan music to the forefront and to prove that East African music is not only as strong but is actually more inventive and vibrant than that from other parts of the continent. Ericks other objectives of music creation are, information, education and entertainment which he likes to call edutainment. For Yunasi, they intentionally avoid having a song owned by an individual. As much as possible, they try to share song ideas and create the music together. Erick likes to perform with the band (although playing
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alone would mean more money for him), he feels that a group experience is richer and more lively. He states that Yunasi does not receive music from people. Also as a group, they believe in recording their artistic expressions and leave it to people to decide whether they like it or not. Erick believes that music is by the people and for the people, meaning that the music they create should be able to touch the surrounding community. The topics or issues should be relevant to those faced in daily life by people.

Mobile phone usage


Eric owns a cloned N95 (fake) mobile phone. He would like a good phone but is restricted mainly by the expense or cost. His phone cannot record and does not have many features that he would like e.g. for shooting videos. He feels a mobile phone is important for an artist because it can enable recording of music ideas, concepts and ideas. As an artist he would like to not only record song ideas, but to play/forward/rewind/edit/or cut song concepts. He would also like to have a small mini-studio which can also capture video, a device that can enhance his creativity as an artist, to programme or record other instruments, and one that can have metronome and drum-kit effects. The features he mostly uses are Bluetooth and video recording. Because his phone is a clone, the features

Music Creation and Sharing

are however not very reliable to use. The phone features he rarely uses are SMS-to-many or MMS services. The phone features he most frequently uses on the clone are video recording and the related features. Erick describes his experience of using mobile phones as reasonable overall. This is because he currently does not have a mobile phone that can do what he wants as described above mainly because it is too expensive. When he gets hold of a mobile phone that is new to him, Erick teaches himself how to use it by finding the features that attract him and learning how they work by exploring. Later on he comes to learn about the other
Fig. 18: Music Creation Process - Erick

features that he is less interested in. He confesses that he does not use a manual to learn how to use a phone.

The music creation process


The diagram below shows Ericks music creation process from inspiration to the finished product. The specific steps he takes when creating music are not done in isolation hence there is usually the involvement of family or friends on one hand and professionals such as other musicians and producers on the other hand. Different steps therefore fall into different quadrants of the diagram depending on which persons have more influence at that stage.

Eric defines the typical amounts of money spent in their music creation process as follows: A single costs about EUR 300 for production, with a master copy. To obtain the cost of an album, one would multiply the number of tracks by EUR 300 and then add on the costs of photography, inlay design, paper, etc. The video costs between EUR 700 and 1000. He however says that he knows some artistes can produce a video or audio with as little as EUR 100 although quality is not so good. Studio costs are therefore in the ranges of: Half-day session EUR 150 300

Per hour session: Approximately EUR 200 500 Yunasi typically spends on the higher end of the spectrum to maintain their production quality. Erick says that such investments are worthwhile for as long as they bring in more performances and gigs. If not, it ends up being too expensive an investment. He is also generally satisfied with the quality of their productions, but not in terms of finances and fame. As a group they travel a lot so as to perform to international audiences and their costs are mainly catered for. What they actually make however in terms of earnings from such travel is not a significant amount of money in his opinion. If Yunasi had more money, they would spend it on
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making videos of their music. This is because their music is more informative and hence a visual aspect to it would really add value. Majority of radio stations only play music for entertainment while TV he feels provides a more suitable medium for educational songs. There are quite a good number of TV stations in Kenya and also, video can be distributed across the world and allow the audience to identify more intimately with the artist by having the visual perspective. TV stations in Kenya however, do not pay royalties to artists. Yunasi members all buy their own instruments. Ericks most expensive instrument is the Timbale (drum set) which cost him EUR 175. Other members have also bought their own instruments e.g. bass guitar, conga, drum set, nyatiti, etc. Erick estimates that each band

member spends about EUR 100 per month on music. Music is the biggest expenditure that he faces in his monthly budget. If a phone with a mini-studio was available, he states that he would be willing to spend money on it at least as much as his most expensive instrument. This would however depend on how much he values such a phone which would in turn depend on its ability to turn around or produce money. An instrument in his opinion produces money much faster, but such a phone would require time to learn how to use it, record and edit music and then sell and make money off it. He therefore states that for such a phone to be valuable, it must be able to turn around song ideas into money at a fairy fast rate.

Fig. 19: Circles of influence and interaction in music creation - Erick

Sharing music
The above sociogram shows circles of influence and interaction. The diagram above shows the different players or individuals involved in Ericks music creation process from idea generation up until he shares his finished music. The circles from the middle going out represent the various steps in the music creation process and within each circle the symbols that stand for the various influences at that stage have been indicated. (See key on left hand side). For Yunasi, idea generation is greatly influenced by life issues in the community hence the arrow
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indicating input from community at this stage. Next is beat and rhythm development which they do as a band and the only influence here is an indirect one from their professional training in music schools at least for some of the members. Next is lyric writing and again the community influence comes in here afterwhich musical arrangement takes place and it is at this point that Yunasi begins to involve the services of a producer as a direct influence and an indirect one being expertise gained from music schools and teachers. Step 4 is thus a give and take process between the band and the producer since the band members do have some expertise in this. Yunasi then go on to refine the music and may involve some critique from friends, family, fellow musicians and other people in the community,

Music Creation and Sharing

not as a major step on its own but as part of their band rehearsals as they are refining the music. The reason that Erick does not lay much emphasis on sharing for critique as a main step on its own is that for a fairly well established band like theirs, he does not feel that there is any kind of feedback they are not already getting through established channels like the fan club and ongoing comments of people viewing their website. After this they record the music using a professional producer and then share it. The main ways in which they share their music are TV and live performances and the internet since they have a significant international audience. TV is particularly important for them as Erick feels that social-issues-oriented music receives a much better response and commitment from TV rather than radio stations in Kenya the latter of which are more interested in entertainment than anything else. Nonetheless radio is still a key sharing medium being part of mass media which as a whole Yunasi has been able to tap into since they have recorded most of their music (high quality production) and also are a fairly well established band. Traveling overseas for liver performance over and above the local performances is a major sharing channel for the band. The band has its own website also for sharing (can pay for and download their albums) and marketing and promotion of the band. They are also exploring other avenues like myspace and facebook. Finally in terms of sharing music, Eric acknowledges that their music is expensive to create. This means that in the slums, much of their music that is shared is pirated. However, they commonly exchange music via Bluetooth through their mobile phones.

a songwriter and want him to write songs for them for free. He would like songwriting to be recognized as a profession and to be able to make money from it. As a band, Yunasi face the challenge of being perceived as rich when they actually do not have much money. They therefore get a lot of additional financial responsibilities which consumes the finances available for music making. In addition, there is the low appreciation of Afrofusion music so that the radio stations do not play Yunasis genre of music. Their CDs are often shelved when taken to radio stations. They also sometimes have difficulty in finding time to practice, especially at times when all other members are involved in other activities. For Yunasi members however, music is their main occupation hence this is not a grave problem. Another challenge is in selling music locally because Yunasi music is considered expensive. Yunasi are better known abroad than locally and if they are to sell locally they would need to reduce the cost of the music without reducing the quality. Currently they therefore face a lot of piracy locally and specifically in the slum community. To solve some of these challenges, Yunasi is seeking sponsors to support them to play at events and gigs. However, they do not want to be a copyright band, playing every weekend. They therefore would like to strike a balance in this. All in all Erick considers finances to be the major problem that they face as a band. This lack of finances leads the group members to look for money from other sources and focus less on the vision and their role in the band.

Challenges
As an individual Erick states that his key challenge is that of not being acknowledged enough as a songwriter. Most people do not appreciate the value of

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M4J (Made For Jesus) Wambu Ayal (Member of Koko Band) Tash (Member of Koko Band) Erick (Member of Yunasi Band) Ngalah (Member of Yunasi Band) Eric and Kennedy Jackston

Ngalah (Member of Yunasi Band)


Table 12: Musician Profile Ngalah

Short biography
galah Davis is a member of the Yunasi band and he also currently carries out his tertiary studies in Nairobi. He is soon to obtain a diploma of basic French as in technical and commercial French. He plays nyatiti, djembe guitar and sings tenor in the register. Songwriter and composer, he has co-written some songs of the band, and he is the writer & composer of the award-winning Ji Opogore. Ngalah
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has also practiced African dance for a number of years and is learning music production and video editing. Ngalah always wanted to make music from when he was a child and he says it is his first love. He has been making music for the past eleven (11) years. He first started out in primary school (standard 7) and by the time he was in secondary school he was singing songs

Music Creation and Sharing

done by other musicians and discovered he was very good at it. After secondary school, he joined a band where they did hip-hop music, which they performed mainly to colleges and secondary schools. He later joined Yunasi.

Ngalahs music
In 2004, YUNASI developed a unique East African music style called SESUBE which is a combination of sega, isikuti and benga. It takes sounds and inspirations from local Kenyan communities, cultural styles and languages and fuses those sounds with a European component. The sound is achieved by playing a variety of instruments, both traditional and modern. The band comprises 8 men from East Africa and a French woman and they sing in several languages including Swahili, English, French, Luo, Kisii and Luhya. The band aims to increase the awareness of contemporary Kenyan music both locally and overseas and hope to become one of the best known bands around. YUNASI are determined to bring Kenyan music to the forefront and to prove that East African music is not only as strong but is actually more inventive and vibrant than that from other parts of the continent. Ngalah hopes to achieve various things with his music. He says that so far he has been able to achieve some

of his goals while others are in the process of being achieved. Because of his music, he has been able to travel and traveling or traversing the world has been his life long dream. The other thing that he had hoped to achieve with his music is recognition and in their last performance in the UK he felt they have achieved this; the audience seemed to know about them already and really appreciated their music. He also hopes to continue earning money from music, and he has been able so far to fend for himself and set up his home music production studio from proceeds of their music. Ngalah sees himself as an individual artist in as much as he is in a band. He believes he is first of all an individual artist since he is able to stand on his own as a solo artist, and perform on his own. He however is very much a part of Yunasi and happy to be at the moment. He is in the band right now because he believes it is easier for an artist to perform as part of a band. As a solo artist, there are many challenges that one has to handle on their own e.g. planning performances, marketing, trips, etc and all these things are hard to handle alone so often, one has to hire people to handle this for them which is an extra cost that the artist has to grapple with. Within a band, band members can be allocated duties, and have an overall band manager to coordinate and follow up. Composition and arrangements of their music are done together as a band. Ngalah thinks that the community significantly influences the music Yunasi makes. Having grown up in the Huruma neighbourhood and birthed the group from there, they often write about
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what goes on in their community. They also talk about various vices in the community since for them it is a tool to educate the community about various life issues.

Ngalah hardly uses manuals in his process of learning how to use a phone. He normally just scrolls through the menu and experiments until he learns how to use it.

Mobile phone usage


Ngalah currently owns a Nokia 1110. He mainly uses it to make voice calls, schedule tasks and appointments using the calendar, the alarm clock to wake him up in the monring and for reminders in general. It also has the text messaging feature which he also uses. Ngalahs phone also has a chat feature, picture messaging and a composer which he has so far not used. He says he does not like his current phone because he prefers phones with colour screens. He used to own good mobile phones but he stopped buying them after loosing them severally through theft. He hopes his next phone will have a USB port so that he can transfer files, have the option to add a memory card, and specifically in terms of music creation have loop creation, and metronome. If a grid is added, he thinks it would even be better than loop creation. In addition, he would like to be able to record the vocals. His ideal would be able to record a track with beats, then record another track with vocals and play it over the other beats track. Overall Ngalahs mobile phone use experience has been frustrating due to frequent phone theft. He is currently using a green screen phone as a result which he feels greatly hinders him and he does not enjoy having that kind of phone at all. He is keeping it since it is hardy and wont spoil quickly, as well as the fact that the loss will not be so great if it does get stolen.
Fig. 20: Music Creation Process - Ngalah

The music creation process


The diagram below shows Ngalahs music creation process from inspiration to the finished product. The specific steps he takes when creating music are not done in isolation hence there is usually the involvement of family or friends on one hand and professionals such as other musicians and producers on the other hand. Different steps therefore fall into different quadrants of the diagram depending on which persons have more influence at that stage. According to Ngalah, Yunasi often uses their rehearsals or practices and band sessions to get input or feedback about their songs. It is normally a time to find out what people (mostly friends) think about their music. This is done before recording. Generally however this is not such a major step in their music creation because he doesnt think there is any feedback they are currently not getting since by being an international band with a website, comments about their music continue to flow in and they are able to know what people think about their music. Moneywise, Yunasi spends quite a lot in music creation. From the recording to preparing of the CD covers, they spend an extensive amount, in their pursuit of ensuring quality of their productions. Costs are incurred on the following aspects of music making

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and recording: The writing and the composition, hiring of rehearsal space (about EUR 10 an hour), booking a studio and recording (this can range from EUR 200 to 400). They also often have to pay other people like a sound engineer to help with the set up of the equipment so as to enhance quality (about EUR 70). In terms of recording costs, Yunasi has paid as low as EUR 70 per single to as high as EUR 400 per single. The difference is due to the different recording studio charges as well as the quality of work they are able to produce. The highest they have paid for a full album (12 songs) is EUR 16,000 and the lowest they have spent on an album is EUR 400. Ngalah believes that if they were to exclusively sell their music in Kenya it would not pay back because each album retails at around EUR 10 which may be considered high by most of the local audience. They therefore put a lot of emphasis on selling their music, as well as performing

internationally and he believes it pays back in terms of personal satisfaction, (traveling, meeting new people and getting to perform) income, more orpportunities to perform, air play (especially in France and UK) as well as international recognition. As an individual, Ngalah feels he gives equal priority to his personal expenses and his musical expenses. He thinks they feed on each other and if any got a higher priority, the other would suffer or fail as a result. If all the features he needed for his music creation were put in a mobile phone he would be willing to pay up to EUR 500 for it.

Sharing music
Below is a sociogram that shows circles of influence and interaction.

Fig. 21: Circles of influence and interaction in music creation - Ngalah

The diagram above shows the different players or individuals involved in Ngalahs music creation process from idea generation up until he shares his finished music. The circles from the middle going out represent the various steps in the music creation process and within each circle the symbols that stand for the various influences at that stage have been indicated. (See key on left hand side). For Yunasi, idea generation is greatly influenced by life issues in the community hence the arrow indicating input from community at this stage. Next is beat and rhythm development which they do as a band and the only influence here is an indirect one from their professional training in music schools at least for some
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of the members. Next is lyric writing and again the community influence comes in here afterwhich musical arrangement takes place and it is at this point that Yunasi begins to involve the services of a producer as a direct influence and an indirect one being expertise gained from music schools and teachers. Step 4 is thus a give and take process between the band and the producer since the band members do have some expertise in this. Yunasi then share for critique to family, friends, fellow artistes and community at large and from this go on to refine the music with only indirect influence from expertise gained at music school. After this they record the music using a professional producer and then share it. The main ways in which they share their music are TV and live performances and the internet since they have a significant international audience. TV is particularly important for them since from their experience social issues oriented music receives a much better response and commitment from TV rather than radio stations in Kenya the latter of which are more interested in entertainment than anything else. Nonetheless radio is still a key sharing medium being part of mass media which as a whole Yunasi has been able to tap into since they have recorded most of their music (high quality production) and also are a fairly well established band. Traveling overseas for live performance over and above the local performances is a major sharing channel

for the band. The band has its own website also for sharing (can pay for and download their albums) and marketing and promotion of the band. They are also exploring other avenues like myspace and facebook. Because their music is expensive to create, much of it that is shared is pirated. However, they commonly exchange music via Bluetooth through their mobile phones.

Challenges
They are not able to travel as often as they would like especially for international performances due to the cost of flights for all the band members. In addition, they are currently recording in the UK which is very expensive in terms of cost of flights since they have to be there physically for the recording. Yunasi has also not been able to acquire all the instruments they feel they need due to the high cost of purchase. (For example, his nyatiti cost him EUR 100). Moreover, hiring of rehearsal space is not only costly but demand for those few spaces is really high so, getting the places is also quite difficult. He believes all this challenges with sufficient money can be overcome.

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M4J (Made For Jesus) Wambu Ayal (Member of Koko Band) Tash (Member of Koko Band) Erick (Member of Yunasi Band) Ngalah (Member of Yunasi Band) Eric and Kennedy Jackston

Eric and Kennedy


Table 13: Musician Profile Eric and Kennedy

History as musicians

ric and Kennedy have come together to collaborate on an album; they both currently belong to other bands namely Mashairi and Mawinka which they plan to go back to once they complete this album. Separately, the duo has been making music for the last five years or so (while still in secondary school) but interest in music began for them while still in primary school. They would cram songs done by other artistes like Notorious B.I.G. and would then go

and perform for their friends at school. In secondary school they decided to start composing their own music. After finishing school they met up with some friends and formed bands which they still belong to despite their current collaboration.

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Erics and Kennedys music


The duo defines their genre as Hip Hop and Rap. Hip hop is their day to day life and their surroundings are conducive to this type of music. They say that everyone around them makes this kind of music although most of them just do it for fun and to prove that they can but for them they have decided to go a step further and try to record their music. Their main target audience is the youth. Through their music they hope to be role models to other young people in the society i.e. become the most influential rappers. This is their main goal; they want to bring about positive change in the lives of people. Money is also important to them but they claim it is secondary. The two of them see themselves as individual artistes, althouth they are currently working together on an album and after that everyone will continue with his own projects. According to the two young artistes, community is a big influence on the kind of music they make as everything they sing about in their music is from the community. None of them plays any music instrument but would like to learn one day.

Mobile phone usage


Eric owns a Nokia 1110i while Kennedy owns a Motorola C113. Eric talks about his Nokia 1110i. He says he only knows the SMS and phonebook features as this is what he mainly uses. He would like to explore the other features on his phone but whenever he tries to do so the phone hangs. He thinks this is because it has very low memory. As such he just uses it for calling and texting. He however doesnt think that there are any features that are very relevant for him to use beyond the texting and calling. Eric says that in the past he had another phone which had audio recording feature and he would make use of this to record his music ideas and flow which he would then use later on when making his music. He would play back then write the lyrics nicely then rehearse with the initial idea he had recorded. The phone was however stolen. In his current phone he likes the text messaging feature as he uses this to write his lyrics. He saves them as draft messages whenever the inspiration comes to him and he can later transfer them elsewhere. He says however that this is not very efficient as the phone has very low memory and so cannot accommodate as much text as he needs it to. He doesnt find difficulty in using any

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of the features. Erick learns how to use new phones simply by trying them out until he understands them. He does not use manuals at all. All in all his phone use experience he says is usually fun especially when he first gets a new phone but as time goes by it becomes boring and hence frustrating. Kennedy talks about his Motorola C113 saying that just like Eric he mainly makes use of voice calls and SMS. He says the phone is quite basic and cant do much else but doesnt really describe what other features it has even if basic. He says he has no difficulty in using any of the features and learns to use a new phone by first going through a manual. His phone use experience has been reasonable.

that they would hope to save at least 10% of their income in future. If they had more disposable income they would cater for their secondary needs such as leisure time whereby they could afford to go to better clubs to party and be able to relax and have a good time after a hard days work and also have some drinks. As compared to their other expenses, expenditure on music production ranks high in terms of priority. Kennedy in particular is living with his parents and this helps him manage to divert his monies to music. Even if they are expected to contribute to their household budgets they say that they can sometimes afford to put on hold those needs and put their money into music production.

Income and Expenditure


Main source of income for both artistes is selling of T-Shirts. They say it is regular and can earn them about EUR 100 a month. This is their only source of income as they are currently not making any money from their music. Erics expenses include rent, clothes, support to family for school fees for siblings, and food. Rent is EUR 25, clothes EUR 25, fees EUR 100 a term (3 months school term), food EUR 28 per month. Kennedy on the other hand does not spend on rent as he lives with his parents but his other expenses include EUR 20 on food, support to mother and brother of about EUR 10 per month and EUR 5 per month respectively. They use any surplus for music in terms of financing themselves to be able to perform at charity shows or perform for free at concerts. The two currently do not save any money. However they say
Fig. 22: Music Creation Process Eric and Kennedy

The music creation process


The diagram below shows the duos music creation process from inspiration to the finished product. The specific steps they take when creating music are not done in isolation hence there is usually the involvement of family or friends on one hand and professionals such as other musicians and producers on the other hand. Different steps therefore fall into different quadrants of the diagram depending on which persons have more influence at that stage. Eric and Kennedy estimate about EUR 100 for recording an audio based on fees charged by other studios that they came into contact with in the past. The current studio they are working with is

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different in that they are signed up with this studio and so they are able to come and do all their work there and they are not getting charged for it at all. This is because the producer is just trying to help young people with music talent get ahead in the industry. They havent done any videos as yet. The single audio that they recorded could not pay back from selling CDs as they say currently it is difficult to sell one single track or song but they utilized it to get some exposure at clubs such as Florida 2000 where they were asked to perform at competitions and they earned some money that way. They have also become a little more popular in their neighbourhood as some people see them as having a higher status for instance the ladies are quite keen to get their attention now. They also have some personal satisfaction having recorded the one single as this signifies a good beginning for them in the music industry.

If the duo had more money they say that they would like to develop their album including videos for their music as they currently have about 10 tracks. Once they have a full album out they can then be able to sell it and make some money out of it but also get a lot more exposure. Meanwhile, they are promoting their music by distributing their one recorded song on CD to the radio stations hoping that they will get some air play. If there were a mobile phone with music making and recording capabilities, the two say that they would be interested in purchasing this device. Given that they live in the slums and dont earn a lot of money they feel they would be willing to pay as much as EUR 150 but also say that for those who are more well-to-do perhaps EUR 400 would be affordable.

Sharing music
Below is a sociogram that shows circles of influence and interaction.

Fig. 23: Circles of influence and interaction in music creation Eric and Kennedy

The diagram above shows the different players or individuals involved in Erics and Kennedys music creation process from idea generation up until they share their finished music. The circles from the middle going out represent the various steps in the music creation process and within each circle the symbols that stand for the various influences at that stage have been indicated. (See key on left hand side).
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Challenges
In order to create music, this duo gets their inspiration from the community around them and also writes their lyrics from this same source of inspiration. They then go to the local production studio and spend time just listening to various beats as the producer is working and when they hear something they like they ask if they can use it. Next is developing the music further in terms of chorusing and here they also involve the producer. Once they have the full song they share for critique with family, friends and some other fellow artistes as they have a good network of peers whom they also spend time with freestyling in the neighbourhood. Step 7 and 8 are also greatly influences by the producer. Sharing finished music is currently through live performance in the community and also at clubs and concerts though the duo has not aggressively focused on this; their main goal is to record their music which they will then distribute via CD. Because they are not yet well established, musicians like them dont get enough airplay on radio stations and so they feel like their talent is not being recognized and they are unable to get ahead in their music career. They try to solve this by performing for free at various shows so that they can hopefully get more exposure and recognition and prove that they have the talent. Even if it means spending busfare to a far off place to perform, they make the sacrifice despite knowing they will not get paid for it. Eric and Kennedy are of the opinion that the government should lower taxes on commodities so that they can afford to spare some money for music production for instance if food was cheaper then more upcoming musicians could spare some money to invest in their music making and also those who love music could afford to buy it. Further they feel that goods that are related to music making and production should have lower taxes e.g. cost of CDs if they were able to buy these at EUR 0.05 per CD instead of the current EUR 0.2 they would be able to buy more CDs, and hence distribute their music to more people.

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M4J (Made For Jesus) Wambu Ayal (Member of Koko Band) Tash (Member of Koko Band) Erick (Member of Yunasi Band) Ngalah (Member of Yunasi Band) Eric and Kennedy Jackston

Jackston
Table 14: Musician Profile - Jackston

Jackstons music
Jackston plays the Djembe drum and plays as part of a small group, mainly of orphans, organized by a Community Based Organisation in the area known as Furaha Community Centre (FCC). The traditional music that they play is from Luo culture known as Ramogi dance. He plays music out of interest, and as a past time and recreation or entertainment activity through the FCC. The group mainly performs street shows and at preselected venues such as parks through pre-arranged and organized events. The group was put together in June 2008 and has been performing for 4 months. They perform mainly for entertainment purposes.

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Mobile phone usage


Jackston currently does not own a mobile phone because he is rather young and without an income of his own hence cannot afford to buy one. He however has access to a mobile phone through his elder brother whom he lives with. He mainly plays games, and accesses the internet to listen to music although he still finds it somewhat difficult or challenging to browse using the phone. Due to his age and income status, he is not yet considering purchasing a mobile phone hence is reluctant to talk about features that he would want in a phone in future and also because his mobile phone use experience and exposure as a whole has been somewhat limited.

He says that he would like to learn more songs and playing techniques from professional players of the djembe drums. As their teacher, acts as an event organizer/manager, Jackston does not have much information pertaining to investments related to making music. The FCC caters for the cost of the instruments and music creation for the group.

Sharing music
Jackston would mainly like to share his music by getting many more live performances and having their groups music played through the mass media like radio or TV. The other music sharing methods that he knows about are through selling CDs and the internet. While playing the drums, Jackston tries to share his djembe playing skills and technique with his peers who do not know how to play the drums or with younger boys. He feels this would be an interesting recreational activity for them and would act as a source of occupation and hope for them, especially those who are orphans like him.

Music creation process


Because Jackston is part of a young group led by an instructor, they as a group rely on their teacher to teach them new songs and music. So far, they have not started creating their own music. Whenever the teacher is not around, there are other instructors available to coach them in playing the instruments and practicing. Jackston does not perform alone; he only performs with other members of his group whenever they are out doing street shows or other events. The main feedback about their music that they receive as a group is from their teacher or other instructors.

Challenges
The main challenge that he feels they face as a group is limited finances for various reasons such as buying uniforms and purchasing instruments.

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Chapter Conclusions
The Informal Music Industry is characterized by various unique and distinct phenomena. In a nutshell, there exists a wealth of talent and potential in the music makers but they are limited by lack of access to musical equipment and instruments as well as professional producers who can really add value to the music they produce for these artistes. Most producers have limited talent, ability and professional know-how hence most productions are not of very high quality. Full potential of musicians is also not fully exploited due to a lack of professional music training which many cannot afford. There is also limited exposure for the upcoming artistes as they cannot afford to record / produce their music and use that to market themselves more within the industry. Their main avenue for music sharing and hence exposure is live performance. The informal

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Conclusions

music industry is also plagued by a high level of piracy which in effect tends to lower the value at which the music can be sold hence musicians may often not get a fair return on investment. There is great interest in a mobile phone with music making and music recording capabilities. The mobile phone is well positioned - it is a daily companion and therefore likely to be the nearest and most convenient tool to capture musicians ideas when they get inspired. Also, the mobile phone could ease the critiquing process as sound clips can be shared more easily with friends and financial constraints can be eased since mobile music studio can help artists record and distribute more music as they will not have to spend on studio costs every time. The study has identified that

the largest cost of music production lies in studio costs. With recorded music they will be able to explore other money making opportunities such as selling their CDs. Finally the musicians can overcome time constraints and other inconveniences caused by going to a physical studio. It also opens up possibilities for musicians interested in venturing into production. The diagram below summarises the Jamms study findings as regards the Informal Music Industry in Africa. In the centre is the opportunity which can be defined simply as music creation and sharing. There are motivations and supportive factors that can enable the opportunity be realized but at the same time there also exist key challenges that need to be overcome. These are as listed in the diagram.

Fig. 24: Informal music industry in Africa at a glance

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APPENDICES
Appendix 1: The Slum Code Group Appendix 2: Mobile Phones and Music Technologies Appendix 3: References and Resource Links

Appendix 1
The Slum Code Group
Slumcode Group started in January 2006 to explore the untapped talent and potential of young people. It has a membership of 5 ladies and 10 gentlemen all actively involved in ensuring program implementation is achievable. They are located in Huruma a densely populated location bordering Mathare Valley within Starehe Constituency. Its a relatively cosmopolitan area with all the major tribes represented.

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Their guiding slogan is: Exploring Opportunities, Empowering Communities.

After concept creation, they aggressively pursue strategic partnerships with major organizations and local community partners for resource development and project implementation in line with their objectives. Through projects that Slumcode runs, they raise funds to facilitate growth, expansion and sustenance. Members welfare is considered through savings from income activities and subscriptions.

a better person a better place

To facilitate social development through identification, mobilization and implementation of relevant empowerment programs towards raising the standards of community initiatives by women, and youth through building capacity, opportunity identification, management and skills development in collaboration with stakeholders.

PROGRAMS:
As they participate in many local activities, they will be running four programmes in the year 2009. The ongoing research oriented JAMMS project, launch of Badilika Slum Makeover (a Television program) in February, Grand Slumfest in August, Stand Up Campaign in October and The Slum Awards in December.

ACTIVITY PROFILE:
Commitment, Team Work, Honesty, Integrity, Ambition, Communication 12.08.06 Usafi na Mitaa environmental clean up campaign / launch (Huruma) 10.02.07 Tree planting campaign with Green Belt Movement and NEMA 1. Personal Development through community based initiatives. 2. Concept creation targeting specific development issues. 3. To run campaigns related to Health and Environmental issues and challenges. 4. Facilitate return to school formulas and create job opportunities. 5. Resource mobilization to boost local talent and income generation activities. 10.03.07 Kenya Society for Protection and Care of Animals (KSPCA) Karen with Nokia (E.A) 13 20.04.07 UN Habitats 21Governing Council exhibition of youth & media 28.04.07 The Grand Slumfest theme: celebrating the changing face of community development. 28.10.07 The Annual Shaggy Dog show Hillcrest School 14.02.08 Valentine splash at the IDP Camp Mathare 16.08.08 Grand Slumfest II / International Youth Day theme: Our place, Our people, Our potential (Nokia Research Africa) 30.09.08 Launch of Nokia Research Africa (Nairobi office) 18.10.08 Launch of Badilika show and Stand up Take action campaign on MDGs
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STRATEGY:
Slumcodes organization structure allows for a dynamic, engaging and systematic method of program implementation. Their departments of Art, Education, Business & Research, Environment & Sanitation, Youth & Sports, and Health & Nutrition are all managed by able youth.

A Study of the Informal Music Industry in Africa

Appendix 2
Mobile Phones and Music Technologies
Mobile Phone Use and Impact
he use of mobile phones has expanded rapidly the world over. According to a recent report by id21 Insights which is a development research communicating organisation, half the worlds 6.5 billion people now use a mobile (up from two billion just two years ago). There are more than twice as many mobile owners in developing countries as in industrialised countries. Subscriber growth rates in developing countries are 25 % per year and double that in Africa. A 2007, online article from influx insights also states that Kenya has one of the fastest rates of mobile adoption anywhere in the world, with 8 million of its 35 million citizens owning a phone, whereas just 7 years ago, there were only 15,000. The id21 report also indicates that more and more development workers tell stories of mobile surprises not just who is using them, and where they are using them, but also how they are using them. Through mobiles, the first digital information and
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communication technologies (ICTs) have reached poor households and communities. In less than a generation, the majority of poor people will have access to mobile phones and services. This will make a difference because of the two types of benefits that mobile phone ownership brings: Incremental benefits whereby the mobile phone improves what people already do Transformational benefits which refers to benefits that offer something new new ways to access services and support livelihoods. Further information (GSMA Development Fund Top 20 Research Reports) expounds on incremental benefits as being either social or economic. Social benefits could include general improvement in social links with both family and friends, creation of social capital or social empowerment, and ability to reach help or obtain information during emergencies. Examples of

Appendicies

economic benefits on the other hand include improved market information, more business opportunities for entrepreneurs including the ability to conduct business through a mobile office, and finding employment either through access to job opportunities or simply being more available and accessible to employers via the mobile phone. With this background information and insights in mind, a case example of the music industry finds that various innovations and technologies have been developed for mobile phones so as to extend to the user (music consumer / music maker / music entrepreneur) either or both incremental and transformational benefits. The J-AMMS study provides insights into the informal music industry in Africa which should enhance the innovation process of mobile phones that can support and enhance the work of musicians in this part of the world and perhaps introduce new ways of doing things in the industry. The following section provides a list of a few of the existing and perhaps relevant mobile music technologies to the J-AMMS project.

You wish you could always have your keyboard or your computer with you... Use Bhajis Loops as a portable and ubiquitous studio. You perform on stage... Use Bhajis Loops to play accompaniments. You are a composer or songwriter... Use Bhajis Loops as a notebook, whenever inspiration strikes. (See detailed features in appendices)

Features:
a. Sample editor Samples can be loaded from SamplePacks, .wav files stored on the memory card or sf2 SoundFonts. Sample editing functions: cut, copy, paste, trim, silence, undo. Effects and transformations: loop crossfade, gain, normalisation, distortion, reverse, downsampling, or any of the built-in effect plug-ins. Draw waveforms directly with the stylus! Built-in voice recorder (not available on Sony Cli devices). Sample size is only limited by the amount of free RAM. Modified samples can be saved as .wav files.

Mobile Music Technologies


Microbe, a compact and powerful music application for all the electronic genres.

Microbe is an all-in one electronic music studio for PalmOS Handhelds. Thanks to its 8 tracks drum machine, its 2 monophonic synthesizers and 18 effect plug-ins, it can generate a large palette of cool electronic sounds, rhythms and sequences. You are a DJ and want a tool to generate fill-ins, drum patterns, basslines or sampled jingles? You like composing music while commuting? You want to extend your studio with a small device full of exciting sounds and realtime possibilities? You dont know how to compose music but youd love to learn the basics of composition for Techno, House, Trance or Electro? Microbe handles all this.
Bhajis Loops turns your Palm into a portable sequencer and sampler (2)

b. Synthesis section Your song can use up to 64 instruments. Wavetable synthesis. Low-pass / high-pass filter, cutoff and volume envelope. LFO controlling the pitch and the filter cutoff. Instrument layering / Keybaord mapping. Different voicing modes - mono, legato, polyphonic... Transposition. Support for micro-tuning (for traditional or historic intervals).

Bhajis Loops gives you everything you need to create stunning compositions on the go, or to play complex arrangements during gigs: a complete sample editor, virtual instruments with wavetable synthesis, pattern editor and sequencer, effects, automation, and even a special mode for live performances.

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c. Pattern editor 8ppq resolution (32 steps per 4/4 bar) with shuffle. 3 editors: Piano-roll, Grid, and note parameters editor to set velocity, vibrato, pan values for each individual note. Complete editing: cut, copy, paste, merge, demix, undo. Pattern recorder for realtime or stepby-step recording of patterns, using an on-screen keyboard or the keys/buttons of your Palm. Pattern library to easily manage a collection of frequently used patterns across songs. Random note generator and humanization function. Scale feature to constrain the input/ recorded notes in a given scale. Easy input of chords in standard notation (Bmin7, Asus4...)

even develop your own! (Ping-pong) delay, reverb, chorus, flanger, phaser, vocoder, pitch-shifting, distortion, EQ, and many more effects! XY pad: You can control two synthesis parameters in realtime with the position of your stylus or your finger on the touchscreen! Advanced tracking options to smooth or interpolate stylus moves.

f. Automation Volume, pan and most of the synthesis parameters (filter cutoff, resonance, envelope, LFO, effect send) can be automatized. Effect plug-ins parameters can be as well automatized. Intuitive vectorial editor taking advantage of the touchscreen and stylus. A complete range of editing features. Stylus movements in the XY pad can be recorded as automation tracks.

g. Live! mode Once you have composed your song, structure it by defining sections and bridges. Bhajis Loops Live! mode allows you to chain these sections in realtime, and jump between them. Exclusive Warp feature allowing complex transition rules like If verse 1 is playing, and if the next requested section is verse 2, play verse 1 and then play verse 2 from its third bar. The accompaniment follows what you are playing, not the opposite! Mute buttons. Assignable controllers. Controllers can also be assigned to the hardware buttons / keys.

d. Song editor 8 tracks on which patterns can be mixed - A pattern in itself can contain up to 64 instruments! Complete set of editing features with undo. 3 zoom levels. Looping, markers. MIDIfile import/export. Wav file rendering.

e. Mixing and effects Mixer with main fader, pan, effect send, mute / solo. 4 independent effect buses + one global send. Open plug-in architecture - new effects are added with each update, and you can

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Appendicies

h. Other features Analog clock synchronization: the left and right channels of music are mixed and output on the left channel, and a 24ppqn clock signal is generated on the right channel. Full support of the 160x160, 160x240, 320x320, 320x480 and 480x320 screen modes. Complete Reference manual available in several formats. Contextual help in all the dialog boxes. Free song replayer. WinAMP plug-in to replay your songs on your PC. PC and Mac OS X conduits to render songs as .wav files, export MIDIfiles, samples or individual tracks during HotSync.

to enter music and edit ideas. Tools include chords, key signatures, time signatures, tied notes, triplets, inversion, retrograde, MIDI export, and full cut/copy/paste editing. NotePad 1.4 also uses the Krikit Audio Engine mentioned above.
RhythmPro 1.2 (Drum Machine & Music Metronome for Palm Handhelds)

RhythmPro allows one to create and play own custom drum patterns with real digitized drum sounds on a Palm handheld. It can also be used as a versatile and extremely accurate metronome. One can create rhythm patterns in almost any imaginable time signature, save and organize the patterns into categories, and play them using any choice of four different display modes for optimal visual and audio feedback. The tempo can also be set for each pattern using the onscreen controls or just by tappping the screen twice in time - RhythmPro calculates the tempo of the taps and begins playing [4].
PocketJam [5]

miniMusic BeatPad 1.1

BeatPad is a pattern based sequencer. It provides a simple yet powerful interface for creating musical patterns of various instruments or drum kits, layering these patterns, and performing them on your handheld or exporting them to your desktop/laptop. Using the Palm Platforms large touch sensitive screen, it is easy to see every aspect of a pattern at once and manipulate it with the stylus. BeatPad 1.1 uses the Krikit Audio Engine (or Krikit Synth) to create rich sound on most modern handheld computers. The Krikit Audio Engine is both polyphonic and multitimbral. Polyphonic meaning that it can play several notes or pitches simultaneously (for playing harmony, chords or counterpoint). Multitimbral means that it can play those notes using different instrument sounds simultaneously (maybe playing piano, guitar and drum sounds to simulate a band). Unlike an MP3 player or other music players, the Krikit synthesizer generates rich audio in real time without a pre-existing digital recording (e.g. an MP3 file).
miniMusic NotePad 1.4

PocketJam, is a tiny rack of virtual analog synthesizers, a sampler and effects for the Pocket PC. QuickSpecs: Has 2 analog synthesizers with nice squidgy filters, variable note slide capability (portamento) and stereo output. 1 multi timbral, polyphonic, analog drum machine with a selection of ten individual drums. Each drum can be replaced with a custom WAV sample of your choice. The drum machine is also stereo. 3 digital delay units, each instrument has its own digital delay unit. Pattern/ Loop sequencer. Each tune when saved in the native. JAM format takes up just a few kilobytes, thanks to ZLIB compression technology. Ability to export as .WAV file for conversion to MP3 or inclusion in a larger composition. Matrix editors for each instrument, allowing for quick and creative composition of melodies and rhythms. All controls use hyper intuative tapndrag technology.
AudioBox [6]

NotePad is a sketchbook for composers and song writers; it is great for music students or hobbyists learning to write and read music; it is also an ideal practice tool for singers and other musicians. It includes four ways to see songs on screen and its easy

Is an all in one virtual recording studio and sound creation tool for the Pocket PC. AudioBox is a complete music composition package with both track and score editing. The interface is simple to use, and yet provides a comprehensive range of features. It allows you to create up to separate 16 tracks; each track assigned its own instrument. An integrated mixing desk allows you to control the overall mix as well as assign multiple effects to each channel. The real time effects include digital delay, reverb, chorus, phaser, low / high pass filters and more. AudioBox also features the ability to automate instruments, effects and mixer settings using custom controller messages sent from the sequencer. Quite simply this allows you to control settings such as mixer pan and fader settings by simply
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drawing on a controller graph. During playback these settings are relayed to the mixer in real time. Audio Box has the ability to work in high quality 44Khz mode or 22Khz mode for some slower models of Pocket PC. The polyphony and number of effects are only limited by the speed of your Pocket PC, so there is nothing to hold you back!
Syntrax (s60) [7]

Meet Syntrax. It has all the modern musician wants when away from the studio! A sequencer, sound synthesis and sample editor all wrapped up in a nice little package!

Features:
Upto 8 stereo audio channels simultaneously (previously only 6), Playback of samples with bidirectional looping support, Realtime sound synthesis with 15 sound generation effects, Realtime effects like filters, morphs and echoes, A built in small sample editor, A full featured sequencer, Dynamic playback options (songspeed, groove, muting etc..), Realtime instrument parameter changing, Full library of preset songs and sounds for you to start working with, User adjustable sound quality for slower devices, MIDI compatibility, Best of all: ITS FREE!!!

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Appendix 3
References and resource links
1. World Bank, (2004), The Africa Music Project, in Thorman, M., & Finger, J. (eds), Poor Peoples Knowledge, World Bank and Oxford University Press. http://econ.worldbank.org/external/default/main?pagePK=64165259&theSitePK=469372&piPK=641654 21&menuPK=64166093&entityID=000009486_20040415114839 2. UNESCO, (2005). Take Note! The (Re)naissance of the Music Industry in Sub-Saharan Africa. Paper prepared for The Global Alliance for Cultural Diversity, Division of Arts and Cultural Enterprise, UNESCO, Paris, June 2004. http://portal.unesco.org/culture/en/ev.php-URL_ID=26323&URL_DO=DO_TOPIC&URL_ SECTION=201.html 3. World Bank, (2001), Report on the Workshop on the Development of the Music Industry in Africa. Sponsored by The World Bank and the Policy Sciences Center, Inc. Washington, D.C., June 20-21, 2001. http://siteresources.worldbank.org/INTCEERD/Resources/CWI_music_industry_in_Africa_synopsis.pdf 4. UNCTAD, (2001). Music Industry Workshop. Third United Nations Conference on the Least Developed Countries: Proceedings from the Youth Forum. http://www.unctad.org/en/docs//ldcmisc82_en.pdf 5. UNCTAD, (2008). The Creative Economy Report 2008. 6. http://www.unctad.org/en/docs//ldcmisc82_en.pdf

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7. http://www.un.org/Pubs/chronicle/2006/issue2/0206p24.htm 8. http://www.cck.go.ke/radio_and_tv_stations/ 9. The GSMA Development Fund Top 20, Research on the Economic and Social Impact of Mobile Communications in Developing Countries www.gsmworld.com/developmentfund/ 10. http://www.influxinsights.com/blog/article/1237/ 11. http:// www.id21.org/insights/insights69/index.html 12. http://www.chocopoolp.com/mi_index.php 13. http://www.chocopoolp.com/bj_index.php 14. http://www.chocopoolp.com/bj_features.php 15. http://www.minimusic.com/beatpad.html 16. http://news.harmony-central.com/Newp/2005/SoundPad-10-NotePad-13.html 17. http://www.minimusic.com/notepad.html 18. http://innovation-z.com/ 19. http://www.ledset.com/pocketjam/index.htm 20. http://www.4pockets.com/product_info.php?p=58 21. http://shop.my-symbian.com

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This research and the report was done by Nokia Research Center which holds all rights to the material.

Nokia Research Center

Nokia Research Africa Team

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