MTN Callertunez: Selling music on digital platform

There is hardly any aspect of life, without the involvement of any of the diverse styles existing in the Nigerian popular music scene. The appeal of this genre, cuts across class, ethnicity, age, sex and faith, thus, affecting millions of lives. Today, Nigerian music serves as a means of entertainment, relaxation and to other areas of human endeavour.

However, it is sad to note that the contribution of music to the economic, social and most importantly, national stability is, unfortunately, bedevilled by several challenges. These challenges have hampered the success of the creative ingenuity of many Nigerian musical artistes.

Piracy has been seen as a major bane facing the entertainment industry. Many people, through piracy feed on the creative sweat of musical artistes without having any form of empathy. The effort to stop piracy has been a constant battle. Protecting intellectual property rights requires using several different approaches, while adjusting to a marketplace with a never-ending appetite for new content. Even though the general public may think of piracy as a victimless crime, this form of copyright infringement destroys the creative professional’s ability to earn a living from his work. Many organisations have tried, as much as they can, to fight against piracy, including the Nigerian Copyright Commission and the Copyright Society of Nigeria (COSON).

Interestingly, many music producers, marketers and artistes are now using other genuine avenues to curb piracy, distribution problems and other related issues, in order get their deserved royalty from their creative sweat. Today, they now rely on Ring Back Tunes (RBK) popularly known as caller tunes as a means of avoiding their content being pirated and getting royalty for their creative content. They have resorted to using one of the most reliable platforms, the MTN Callertunez service, in achieving their aim. This is because, the MTN Callertunez service has grown to become one of the safest and largest distribution platforms, for music content in Nigeria, having over 17 million subscribers patronising the service. This number holds a yet unbeaten record in the telecommunications industry.

The MTN Callertunez, which was launched in 2008, has been found by many musical artistes to be one of the inimitable ways to monetise their creative content and offers solutions to the distribution problems, hampering the Nigerian music industry, thus making it impossible for the service to be duplicated or pirated. With its wide outreach to millions of subscribers, the service has a library of over 12, 000 Callertunez of various artistes.

The Chief Marketing Officer, MTN Nigeria, Larry Annetts, explained that MTN was always in the forefront of appreciating Nigerian artistes and protecting their intellectual property. “A key strategic focus for MTN is to connect Nigerians with their passion for music, and the organisation, constantly, demonstrates this via innovative marketing initiatives some of which are Project Fame and MTN Songstar. Worthy of note, also, is the fact that MTN is, particularly, committed to promoting the consumption of Nigerian content which is evident in its heavy and frequent Marketing campaigns for exclusive Nigerian music content and the MTN App Developer challenge which are aimed at driving the local developer ecosystem. As a result, MTN is now the preferred partner, for many top Nigerian artistes and content providers, as many of them now get value for their intellectual creativity, as the MTN Callertunez service now provides a credible platform for them to feed off their creative sweat.”

It is interesting to know that, one of Iyanya’s music hit tracks ‘Kukere’ on MTN Callertunez, was the first tune to cross three million downloads, on any mobile telecommunications network in Nigeria. This was made possible by the over 17 million Callertunez subscribers of the leading ICT company, in Nigeria. In appreciating the subscribers and commemorating Nigeria’s 53rd Independence anniversary, MTN is rewarding over 2000 loyal subscribers, on the service with high-end smartphones and other exciting prizes. The reward will see a good number of subscribers emerging daily for 53 days, they will be selected, in all regions across the nation and prize presentations will be made, accordingly. To further excite and make it easier for customers to discover their favourite songs on MTN Callertunez, the Chief Marketing Officer, stated that a Facebook app and a smartphone app for the service will both be launched before the end of the year.