Bozza Wants To Be Africa's Answer To iTunes, Spotify and Netflix 42
Mickeycaskill writes: South African startup Bozza has grand ambitions of becoming a trusted platform for pan-African music, video and poetry, with artists keeping 70 percent of revenues. Whereas Netflix and Spotify can deliver high quality streams to users in North America and Europe with superfast fixed and 4G connections, 50 percent of Bozza's traffic comes from feature phones. Data compression technology and transcoding techniques try and keep costs down, while Africa's mobile market is much less app-centric. Bozza founder Emma Kaye explains how she plans to help turn Bozza into a major medium platform.
Ummm... (Score:1)
Are iTunes, Spotify and Netflix all banned on the African continent?
Re: (Score:3)
Whereas Netflix and Spotify can deliver high quality streams to users in North America and Europe with superfast fixed and 4G connections, 50 percent of Bozza's traffic comes from feature phones.
The people who wish to access these services don't have devices that are compatible or have very limited network speeds which aren't sufficient. Bozza is targeting this gap in the market and using various methods to make content available to these basic devices.
Re: (Score:2)
Are iTunes, Spotify and Netflix all banned on the African continent?
Banned is the wrong word.
The rights holders seldom sell the full international distribution rights to all the online services. This is why if you're in the UK, Netflix only has a fraction of what's available if you're in the US (at least, this was last year, I don't know if it's still the case right now). And this is why in most countries, you can't get Netflix or Spotify at all, unless you pay with an American credit card or some other foreign credit card, and then use a VPN to tunnel through to the servic
Re: (Score:2)
it is the case and Netflix in Finland is only a portion of whats in the UK. it's due to country by country selling of rights to shows to maximize consumer happ... haha to maximize profits and price discrimination by treating every country as a place where you can have a bidding war where to get one good show a tv station has to bid for a package that includes 90% shit.
anyways, HOPEFULLY the EU rules hopefully coming into effect will make it so that netflix content etc would be the same to every country.
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
The above services probably have little or no modern African content, and lack the skill to acquire it.
However, given that Africans are accustomed to the very lowest quality of pirate CDs, it will be interesting to see if they will pay for services offering music they want at a marginally better quality (assuming network coverage permits). The problem is not going to be lack of sm
Re: Ummm... (Score:2)
iTunes is available in South Africa (without any tricks, you pay in ZAR, vouchers are available in most stores ). I think some video content that is available in the US isn't available in the South African iTunes store due to regional exclusive rights belonging to other players (satellite providers such as DStv), but I believe all music is avilable.
Google Play Music and Amazon Prime aren't available. Spotify isn't available without DNS tricks, but Deezer is.
A few video streaming providers operate in SA, in
I wonder if it will offer international access? (Score:2)
I'd subscribe just to get access to the music.
Re: (Score:2)
I mean, international access outside of africa. Obviously there is already international access.
I wonder what the majors will have to say about this?
Re: (Score:2)
I made a mistake, then acknowledged it and rectified it. Not sure what your point is?
Are you trying to imply that I'm ignorant? At least I don't post AC. When will you correct that fault?
Re: (Score:2)
I just went to the website and clicked on the player for the free stream. The first track sounded very much like rap. So did the second track. And the third track, and the fourth track.
If I want to listen to hip-hop/rap, I'll listen to a hip-hop/rap station - not one that claims to play african music.
Re: (Score:2)
If I want to listen to hip-hop/rap, I'll listen to a hip-hop/rap station - not one that claims to play african music.
What did you think, that all of African music is beating drums?
Re: (Score:2)
Hell no. From my limited exposure (hence the desire to hear more of it), there's an enormous variety of styles - modern/pop, tribal (for want of a better word), protest, rock, and yes, even rap. But what I heard earlier this afternoon had little to distinguish it from what I've heard on american - specifically USofA - rap-focussed stations.
I'd like to hear some variety - as I said above, there were 4 sequential tracks of rap, and that's where I lost interest.
Re: (Score:1)
Yeah, sorry for being harsh, but you implied that rap/hip-hop could not be African music, which was pretty stupid.
I don't know, maybe they have different genres on the stream during the day, and African hip hop as as much right to be on the stream as anything else. Right now the current and next 5 tracks are not hip hop.
Re: (Score:3)
My, what an erudite response. Why deign to descend and partake of discourse with we mere plebeians, when you have such a command of the language?
Re: (Score:2)
Oh, well done. I'd give you a mod point +1 Funny, were I not already part of the discussion.
Well done, you. Keep it up and I look forward to more of your contributions. Nothing like joining the hoi-polloi for a bit of classy debate.
Re: (Score:1)
Why deign to descend and partake of discourse with we mere plebeians, when you have such a command of the language?
Indeed, one wonders which vaunted institution of higher learning this person matriculated to acquire such a refined taste for the obscene.
Problem (Score:1)
Please only post links to articles if they contain photos of the women in the stories. The internet is a picture book for many people and the stories need to gratify the readers.
I don't think regional platforms are viable (Score:2)
... absent legal barriers. Why would Africa need their own? they don't need their own version of the CPU. They don't need their own operating systems. They don't need their own word processors.
They appropriate existing third world technology for all that stuff. So... why would they need a music platform?
Possibly there is a licensing issue.
Re: (Score:2)
Why do we need spotify? Why do we need itunes? I don't need them or use them.
Your argument is like we should need only one type restaurant, just as happened after the Restaurant Wars in Demolition Man. Or we don't need an email provider because there is yahoo/microsoft/gmail.
Doesn't stop the restaurants using the same technology such as dishes, salt and vinegar, or datacenters from using racks of x86 PCs and ethernet, or mobile phones from using ARM (or MIPS) and GSM, LTE, wifi.
Re: (Score:2)
By the same token then why do you need whatever this new thing is?
As to restaurants... you're talking apples and astronauts there. You can't compare a streaming music service with a restaurant. There's no commitment to a restaurant. The technological barriers are basically non-existent. you don't need to get everyone in the continent of africa to sign on to a restaurant to make it work but you do if you want your music streaming service to work. And no... i don't mean literally every single person... but mo
I don't think non-regional platforms are viable (Score:2)
I don't think non-regional platforms are viable because of legal barriers.
Re: (Score:2)
Well, the likes of netflix, amazon, and itunes are crossing a lot of jurisdictions already and the status quo business and regulatory framework that the industries were used to is being phased out as they realize it makes piracy more of a problem.
An issue for example was movies not all releasing at the same time. That wasn't a big deal before the internet. But now that it is you can't tolerate it.
I think we're headed to a system where the internet is a jurisdiction unto itself in a lot of ways and thus able
Dream on (Score:2)
Yeah, and I want to be the next Microsoft, but it ain't gunna happen!