“How do I get my Music on Skiza?”
This was the most frequently asked question I got when I was working as a promo girl for Skiza at Kenya Music Week a few years ago (humble beginnings, but we all start from somewhere). Most up-coming musicians wanted to know how to get Safaricom interested in their music, while the already established musicians wanted to know how their music got onto the Skiza platform in the first place.
It took me some time to get to know how, but now that I have this information I’m more than happy to share it with you.
Skiza is a platform on the Safaricom portal used for download of digital content by Safaricom service subscribers. Skiza is simply a personal value-added service for its customers. Safaricom works with appointed content providers, otherwise known as aggregators who are responsible for sourcing, formatting and uploading digital content onto Skiza. Digital content includes music, screen-savers, short video clips. These content providers are the companies you need to talk to if you want to get your music onto Skiza.
Below is the list of Safaricom’s content providers as of the year 2012 that you could work with to get your content uploaded onto Skiza. Note that different content providers deal in different genres of music, so you can easily identify to whom you should channel your content. Each content provider has their own terms of engagement.
CONTACTS OF CONTENT PROVIDERS FOR SKIZA
1.Interactive Media Services
Content: Bongo and Bollywood
Contact: Nicholas Ndegwa
Physical Address: Teleposta Towers, 20th Floor
Postal Address: P.O. Box 61823-00200 Nairobi
Landline Number: +254 020 341 566/9
Email: nicholas@ims.co.ke
2. Liberty Afrika
Content: Gospel and Vernacular
Contact: Olive Githongo and Robert Gichuru
Physical Address: The Mall Westlands, 2nd Floor, Ring Road Westlands
Postal Address: P.O. Box 20000-00100 Nairobi
Cell Phone Number: +254 720 720 720
Landline Number: +254 020 444 2774/5
Email: olive@libertyafrika.co.ke/ bob@libertyafrika.co.ke/ arthur@libertyafrika.co.ke
3. M-Tech Communications
Content: Naija and Wacky Tunes
Contact: Shiro Mwendwa
Physical Address: 4th Floor, Longonot Place, Kijabe Street, Nairobi
Postal Address: P.O. Box 23920-00100 Nairobi
Landline Number: +254 020 222 2399
Email: rm@mtechcomm.com
4. Bernsoft Interactive
Content: Reggae, Classical, Dance, Kwaito, Rock, Techno, Country, Sermons and Comedy
Contact: Bernard Kioko
Physical Address: Applewood Park, 4th Floor Office 505, Off Wood Avenue Road, Kilimani
Postal Address: P.O. Box 15177-00100 Nairobi
Landline Number: +254 202 149 401/2
Email: bernard.kioko@bernsoft.com and support@bernsoft.com
5. Cellulant
Content: Benga, Zilizopendwa, Taarab, Kenyan Pop and Genge
Contact: Doris Nduta and Lee Maina
Physical Address: P.O. Box 283-00606 Nairobi
Landline Number: +254 020 387 6660/ +254 020 387 5891
Email: doris.nduta@cellulant.com and lee.maina@cellulant.com
6. Qasiida Technologies
Content: Islamic Content
Contact: Mareh Abdallah and Abdul Haji
Physical Address: IPS Building, Kimathi Street
Postal Address: P.O. Box 234-00610 Nairobi
Cell Phone Number: +254 723 997 799
Email: mareh.abdallah@aol.com and abdulhaji@qtlmedia.com
7. Air Networks
Content: Bollywood
Contact: Jaffer Jasho and Chirag Acharya
Physical Address: Doshi Complex, Mombasa Road
Postal Address: P.O.Box 283- 00606 Nairobi
Landline Number: +254 703 030 000
Email: jaffer@air.co.ke and achirag@air.co.ke
Of course, you’d also like to find out how to make money from Skiza! Read more on this post- Do Kenyan artists make money through Skiza?
*Disclaimer: List of Safaricom Content Providers was made available at the Kenya Music Week workshop 2012
Post by Sarah Ochwada- Entertainment and Sports Lawyer, Nairobi- Kenya
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