On 24th of October, 2022, Spotify, a Swedish audio streaming and media service provider, announced that it had made available a twelve million grant to content producers who tell the story of Africa. While hosting prominent podcasters and musicians from Africa, the managing director of Spotify Africa, Ms Jocelyne Muhutu Remy, announced the grant launch during the Africa Day celebrations in Johannesburg. The fund intends to spotlight voices, formats, and languages from Africa and hosts of all genders by amplifying the underrepresented tales and viewpoints in podcasting. The recipients of the funds are independent, upcoming podcasters with expanding audiences.
According to the news release, the criteria used in the selection of the fund beneficiaries was a pure numbers game, they focused on countries with the largest podcast listeners, which is more of investing in tangible and established countries, giving them a boost which makes sense but that is only if you ask me. In total, 13 podcasts were selected, a total of 5 from West Africa, that is 3 in Nigeria, 1 in Ghana, and 1 in Cameroon, South Africa and Kenya bagged 4 in each country for the deal. In this video, we are only going to focus on the latter, Kenya. The four selected podcasters in Kenya are The Sandwich Podcast, The Messy Inbetween, Mantalk. ke, and Nipe Story.
In this segment, we are going to dissect each podcast, what they represent and stand for, and this is going to happen in no particular order. Number one on the list is...
1. The Sandwich Podcast: is presented by John, Kibz, Nyamita, and Owen and has the most listeners in Kenya. The program covers life experiences and narratives and presents its information in English, Swahili, and Sheng. Sheng is a language that is used in Kenya, in Urban Kenya, it is a mixture of Swahili and English. On unusual occasions, the program includes additional speakers who provide ideas for podcast episodes. The four podcast hosts describe themselves as a bunch of funny creatives speaking out their minds on different matters. More than 237,355 Instagram users follow the show.
2. The Messy Inbetween: is hosted by Murugi Munyi and Lydia Mukami and covers issues including love, money, job, life, advice based on personal experience, and everything else that goes into making a life. In other words, it's an open and honest dialogue about how messy life is among the various aspects of living. It offers a secure setting where women can speak openly about their experiences. Along with emphasising all the messy sides of life, the hosts provide a forum for people to discuss solutions and come up with them. On Instagram, TMI has 56.3 thousand followers.
3. Mantalk. Ke: the show identifies the need for talks hosted by men on topics like toxic masculinity, fatherhood, feminism, dating, and self-care. The program is anchored by two Kenyan actors, Eli Mwenda and Oscar Koome. Even though they are putting themselves in a vulnerable position, the two hosts try to have insightful dialogues for the sake of their audience. It provides a secure environment for stimulating an open dialogue. As the hosts have fun answering the questions submitted by the show's audience, the episode is jam-packed with banter. The podcast, which has an audience share of 150 000 on Spotify and 43.5k Instagram followers, was named the winner of the African Podcast and Voice Awards on September 25, 2022.
4. Nipe Story: is hosted and narrated by Kevin Mwachiro, a hilarious activist, writer, and journalist from Kenya. Kevin provides a platform for African writers to share their short stories, giving written African stories a voice. The stories are made up, and the podcast, which is one year old, has gained notoriety as Kenya's outstanding podcast.
Upon the announcement, The Inbetween podcast informed its Instagram followers of their selection for the Africa Spotify Grant Fund in a post of gratitude. The two hosts are thrilled to be among the first recipients of the Spotify grant fund, and they are grateful to their followers, and fans and listeners for their encouragement and support.
You may be listening to this video and wondering, why is Spotify doing this? The main objective is to support African platform creators globally and change the constrictive perception of stories about the continent that has existed historically. Through financial scholarships, workshops, and networking opportunities, the fund aims to advance the careers of these podcasters.
Closing remarks:
I don’t know what your opinion is, please let us know in the comments below, do you think it is a good thing what Spotify is doing in tapping into the African Market? What’s your view? Let us know
Thanks for watching, I’ll see you on the next video
Негізгі бет TMI podcast among podcasters Set to Benefit from Spotify's KES 12 Million Fund
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