Paper short abstract:

This paper explores emerging m-commerce business models in the Kenyan music industry, how they are being developed and implemented, and the responses they are engendering from those involved in reforming Kenya’s music copyright law and royalty collection protocols.

Paper long abstract:

There is a growing belief among music entrepreneurs and royalty collection organizations in Kenya that the digital technologies that have allowed music piracy to flourish in the developed world will foster a viable music industry in their country based on the legal exploitation of music as intellectual property. Those who hold this belief often point to the emergence of music m-commerce (mobile phone commerce) in Kenya, which is already generating profits for Kenyan and international mobile phone companies and digital content providers, and (to a lesser degree) providing new income streams for local music producers and artists. In this paper, based on interview data from on-going research in Nairobi, I explore emerging m-commerce business models in the Kenyan music industry, how they are being developed and implemented, and the responses they are engendering from those involved in reforming Kenya's music copyright law and royalty collection protocols. In the process, I approach the broader question of how the translation of music into mobile phone 'content' is challenging local ontologies of the musical work. I take as an illustrative case study those business models that seek to 'cut out the middle man' between music artists and consumers. Typically characterized as for-profit social entrepreneurship aimed at helping struggling artists to receive fair remuneration for their work, such models exemplify the exuberant optimism that surrounds the music m-commerce in Kenya. Their implementations, meanwhile, exemplify how this optimism can be dampened by practical realities, such as the complexities of music copyright in Kenya.