The Music producer Sechaba Mokoqo, better known in social circles in Bloemfontein as ‘Sir Sechaba’, has introduces the first online music shop in the country, called YME Tunes.
The online music shop is expected to use Ecocash and Mpesa, the Econet Lesotho and Vdacom money transfer services, as a way of payment for users when they want to buy music.
Mokoqo says the music shop is meant to cater for Basotho because for a long time since the existence of copyright laws in Lesotho, local artists have not been receiving royalties for their work.
He said he founded YME because he wanted to make sure that artists, who are always fleeced by piracy, get money for their music.
“In the meantime, at least while the issue of royalties is not solved yet, I wanted a way for musicians to collect money directly from the people that use their content, except for concerts because they are not always coming our way. That is the rationale behind creating YME Tunes,” he said.
He indicated that artists will be able to register with YME Tunes and pay a monthly registration fee for their music to be accessible on the online shop.
“For now we have genres like hip hop, famo, soul, and house and we are hoping that with time we will be able to introduce all kinds of genres available in the country so that we can give everyone a chance.
“YME Tunes has been three years in the making because we wanted to make sure it is a secure place for users, such that no one can tamper with their music.”
