In a bid to curtail piracy, the Zimbabwe Music Rights Association (ZIMURA) is developing an application that allows musicians to upload their music and sell it online.
The application is named MHANZI, meaning Music Hub Application in Zimbabwe. It is a platform where music lovers can download local music for 10 cents per song.
“As ZIMURA, we are developing an application to fight piracy locally. Artists lose lots of money through piracy and we have found a way to end this with the new application,” said ZIMURA Chair, Albert Nyathi.
“The application will be different from other online music stores in that it will have local content only. We intent to have even the rarest of local music that cannot be found on any application,” added Nyathi.
“We want the site to have every musician who ever played locally, from Winky D to August Msarurwa to Cold Storage Band.”
When launched, users can download music and the downloaded tracks cannot play on any other device except the one which downloaded it. This is a deliberate move to corner piracy.
Other than curbing piracy, the site seeks to offer equal marketing opportunities to upcoming artists who cannot market themselves.
Nyathi also said, “Our people who are in the diaspora like to listen to local music. This application will offer them a chance to download music and listen to it.”
Artists expressed their joy about the new application in terms of curtailing piracy. “This is a good application because it protects us artists from losing money. It is sad that you see other artists buying your work on the street yet we are supposed to be fighting that. I thank you for such an idea,” said Aleck Macheso.
“I am happy that we are now moving forward. We as artists can be assured that the fight against piracy has begun,” said Sebede.
“This is something that is supposed to be celebrated. We must rally behind it and own it because it is for our benefit,” said Dudu Manhenga.
Once launched, MHANZI will be available on Apple App Store, Google Play and its website. The organisers said the application will be launched early next year.
 is developing an application that allows musicians to upload their music and sell it online. The application is named MHANZI, meaning Music Hub Application in Zimbabwe. It is a platform where music lovers can download local music for 10 cents per song. “As...Read More){kind=link}