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The African Dream

Support mixdem.com, a music platform built to help you discover music and news

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The African Dream

The African Dream

The African Dream

The African Dream

The African Dream

Support mixdem.com, a music platform built to help you discover music and news

Support mixdem.com, a music platform built to help you discover music and news

Support mixdem.com, a music platform built to help you discover music and news

Support mixdem.com, a music platform built to help you discover music and news

Munyuki Manatsa
Munyuki Manatsa
Munyuki Manatsa
Munyuki Manatsa
1 Campaign |
Windhoek, Namibia
$25 USD 1 backers
0% of $5,000 Flexible Goal Flexible Goal

 

Having always wanted to become an entrepreneur all my life  I enrolled for a Bsc  Honors in Information Systems from Midlands State University in Zimbabwe hoping to get a good job one day, and make enough money to start my own business and help eradicate unemployment and poverty in Zimbabwe and Africa at large.

 

After graduating with an upper second class hopes were high, surely with such grades I wouldn’t have any trouble getting that dream job- so I thought. More than 2 years after graduating and endless interviews with a lot of companies, I was still without that job.

 

With my dreams and future looking threatened I did not give up. Working less than 3 hours a day because of power cuts in Zimbabwe, without the means the pay for the domain, no money for hosting and above all without access to internet, I launched mixdem.com in an internet café in April 2012.

 

I shared my story with the rest of the world and received overwhelming response.  International picked up on the story. Mixdem.com was able to attract a lot of visitors and users.  A lot feedback from ordinary users and successful was received on how the application can be improved and things that were done right.

 

What is mixdem.com?

 

Mixdem.com is an urban music application. At the moment aggregates the top hip hop news from online sources. Users are also allowed to vote on the most relevant stories. It also allows discovering and listening to new music that is popular online. Music supported includes hip hop, electronic, reggae, rock and gospel. Music is also index according to countries and at the moment United States, Zimbabwe, Nigeria, Kenya, Ghana, South Africa is indexed.

 

Features to be implemented

 

Artist profiles, detailing how the artist made it, grew up and discography. Established artists will be profiled as well as emerging artists.

 

Music videos aggregated from popular blogs and displayed on mixdem.com using YouTube api. Playlists will be supported. Sharing will be also included.

 

Reviews are also a feature that will be included. Users will also be allowed to write the reviews about the music they have listened to.  Reviews will also be done by the editorial team on selected songs.

 

Articles will be also supported. The editorial team will feature unique stories about music and the impact it will be having in people’s lives.

 

Localization. Due to overwhelming feedback content will be localized to each country. That is users will be able get content that is geographical important to them.

 

Music hosting. There is lot of artists looking to distribute their music online and it is my wish that I provide them with a platform to reach out to people. Artists will be able to upload their music, track listening and communicate with their fans.

 

Lyrics. The platform will allow users to the ability to contribute lyrics on the favorite music. The editorial team will also add lyrics on selected music. Also artists will be given an opportunity to explain the meanings of their songs.

 

Vision

 

It is my utmost objective to help create a platform that will help music fans to listen to great music irrespective of whether it is from a popular artists or artists who haven’t made it yet. Also I wish to provide in mixdem.com a platform for emerging artists to help them distribute and sell their music to a wider audience. In addition to that I hope music fans will have access to great unique content like news, reviews which wouldn’t have been featured on any other platform.

 

 

 

Why ask for funding?

 

After successfully launching the application the response I have received validated the need and the market for the application. However due to limited financial resources I haven’t been able to work on the application for more than 7 months. One of the things that have hindered me is access to internet. I have had to rely on internet cafes or working from a friend’s place.

 

Without internet access I cannot obviously do much. Also the computer that I have been using is very old and cannot work efficiently with modern software.

 

More importantly is the server costs. Currently I have been currently running on a free cost. Time and again the servers will be unavailable. Obviously for a website that expects high growth one cannot do without paying for hosting.

 

In order to create great quality content, mixdem.com will need good writes to add content. The writers will need to be paid for their service. The writers I have contacted don’t require much since they know it’s a new service but they will still require to be paid something.

 

Being a programmer myself, I would be doing more of the programming myself but I will need some allowance in order to pay bills while I work on the application full time. Also the application will need a profession designer to create a professional looking application. I will also need the help of a few programmers of which I need to pay them.

 

In addition to that money will also be needed to market the application to a wider audience. This will include creating videos, launch events, online paid advertising, fliers , t-shirts and other forms of advertising.

 

Why Indiegogo?

 

The funds needed are beyond what I can possibly achieve at this point in time.  In order to achieve the set goals funding will be required. One can ask, why not look for investors? Well where am at now, Windhoek there are no investors available to a fund an early stage startup. The problem is widespread across Africa including my home country, Zimbabwe. This leaves only with one option to looking for funding on self-raising platform, of which only Indiegogo  is available international.

 

Costs

 

Server costs estimated at $2700

 

Internet and Computer equipment $1 300

 

Writers    $2000

 

Graphic Designer $600

 

Allowances            $1000

 

Marketing            $1000

 

Programmers     $1000

 

While the costs highlighted above are obviously above $5000 and not even exhaustive, I am looking for a modest $6000 barely enough to get a solid platform out to the rest of the world and attract enough users in order to make the platform self-sustainable or attract international investors.

 

The Impact

 

By helping me raise the funds you will have an opportunity to help me create a successful business that might end up employing some of the best African minds. Besides that help me prove that if you really want something and work hard it will happen no matter the difficulties.

 

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Choose your Perk

Tweet in your honor

$10 USD
A tweet in your honor thanking your generosity.
0 claimed

A blog mention

$25 USD
I will mention you in a blog post thanking your generosity and support.
1 claimed

A beautiful Namibian Postcard

$50 USD
You will get a very beautiful postcard just to show my appreciation for your support
0 claimed

A hand written letter

$100 USD
I will right a personal hand written letter expressing my gratitude for your support.
0 claimed

A cool t-shirt

$250 USD
You will get a cool mixdem.com t-shirt and handwritten letter and a postcard to show my gratitude for my support.
0 claimed

Contributor

$500 USD
You will be listed on the website as a contributor. Besides that you will also get handwritten letter and a postcard.
0 claimed

Diamond Contributor

$1,000 USD
Your name will be listed on the website as a contributor. Besides that you will get to talk to me one on one on skype. Also I will give 8 hours of free programming on a problem of your choice.
0 claimed
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