Top 7 Innovative Arts and Music Companies in 2022

7 Innovative Companies Changing the Creatives Industry in 2022

The Creatives industry is one of the most underrated industries globally and yet they comprise of a huge number of youths who are mostly self-employed.

However, with technologies such as AI Creative Industries such as the music industry is quickly experiencing growth whether it’s by connecting fans or helping to connect musicians, these companies are establishing new standards for the arts, music, and creatives industry.

For instance, in 2021, the music industry made sizable gains, growing 7.4% to reach an estimated $31.6 billion in the United States. In essence from networking to collaboration, apps technology has helped creatives in different industries, position themselves and ultimately reach their wider audience.

Global networking apps such as Vampr are positioning themselves as a LinkIn for musicians, helping them find one another, collaborate, and even distribute their work. 

DistroKid, on the other hand, launched a tool that helps match unsigned artists with record labels. Landr helps more than 500,000 artists and producers create, master, and distribute their music in new and more powerful ways. 

And streaming service SoundCloud introduced fan-powered royalties, allowing artists to earn revenue every time a fan streams their music.

From fashion to music, art, film, and so on, in this list, we share with you a number of companies also helping change the narrative for creatives in the arts and music industry.

Mawu Africa

Mawu Africa, offers a platform for African Artisans and creatives to sell anywhere, get connected with local raw material providers, get paid locally, access financial services and manage their business all in one platform.

The company is committed to upholding the dignity of African creators by celebrating their unique cultural techniques and traditions to push for positive change for our local communities and the world at large.

Based at Nairobi Garage// Delta, Mawu Africa on a mission to upscale Africa’s creative sector entrepreneurs, elevate the overall quality of the region’s creative outputs as well as anhance Africa’s share of voice in the global creative market across all genres.

Mawu Africa was in 2021, selected for The Legends – Jasiri Edition, a revolutionary platform conceptualized and implemented by the UK Kenya Tech Hub in conjunction with CIO East Africa.

They have also made it to the list of the 2022 #WazoChallenge

Mdundo

Mdundo is African music streaming service that has over 20million monthly active users (MAUs) as of June 2022

Mdundo, who is a member of Nairobi Garage was established in Kenya in 2013, was listed on Nasdaq Copenhagen in September 2020. It has also entered into partnerships with telcos like Vodacom Tanzania, MTN Nigeria and Airtel Nigeria.

The company also announced recently a new licensing deal with Universal Music Group (UMG), the latest major record company to ink an agreement with Mdundo after Warner Music Group in 2017.

What makes mdundo unique is the fact that the platform is kicking African music into the stratosphere by taking the side of the artist.

Unlike other mobile music, services keep 85-90% of sales Mdundo enables artists to keep track of your fans and we split any revenue generated from the site fairly with the artists.

Boomplay:

BoomPlay Music currently brags over 75 million monthly users, making it one of the fastest-growing music streaming apps in Africa. 

Perhaps this might also be thanks to the partnership the app has had with TECNO to have it as a default app on the company’s devices. But you’ve also got to give it to the company for the impressive growth rate that is associated with some of the app’s favourable features.

This includes affordable subscription plans, and flexible payment options alongside other features. Subscriptions for access to content can be made daily, weekly or monthly with options to pay using mobile money, PAGA, debit cards, and even airtime. 

Users can also purchase coins that are used for in-app purchases; these coins are transferable from one user to another.

Funding Opportunities // 7 Amazing Innovation Challenges

Other than streaming music, users can also purchase albums and download them for offline play. The app is currently available for web and Android users on Google Play Store.

Docubox

Docubox is the East African Documentary Film Fund. The fund exists to enable talented, driven, focused and accountable East African artists to produce unique films that unearth new realities and cross trans-national boundaries.

Through training, development, production grants, and screenings for people who love documentary films, the fund promotes East African filmmakers and share their unique stories with the world through creative documentary. They currently, fund fiction under The Box

MyMovies Africa:

On 26th September 2019, after nearly 5 Years from Idea to Service, MyMoviesAfrica went live in Kenya. 

The platform is a proprietary, and proudly Kenyan, mobile-first Digital Cinema Extension. It offers movie content on Smart Devices, including Phones, Tablets, and Laptops, via the Internet, as a 48-hour Rental and #OwnForLife.

The platform is set to improve the retail of movies throughout Africa, as well as the retail of African movies to the Diaspora. MyMoviesAfrica allows subscribers to choose from a wide array of movies by either buying or renting the content one pleases.

It specializes in offering Blockbusters, Features, Shorts, Documentaries, and animations. Customers enjoy the content on android apps on phones, tablets, and set-top boxes, via Chromecast on TV as well as via Web on Laptops, Smart Televisions, and other Smart Devices.

Some of their popular titles include Disconnect & Family Meeting alongside You Again, award-winning Lusala, 1988, and Jonarobi.

Kalabars

In 2018, Kalabars was launched to fulfill its founder’s allegiance to Africa to offer an opportunity to tell its story, in its own words, within a platform that widens its reach to an audience that craves quality African productions.

Kalabars is a subscription view on-demand platform that offers quality content; Films, Series, Documentaries, Music Videos and listen to Audio on smart devices via the internet. Kalabars exists to offer African creatives a chance to share their quality content to an audience that craves African productions.

Art@Work

Art@Work is an affordable art retail company. The company’s mission is to make art more accessible and appreciated in East Africa by making it affordable and relevant to living spaces. 

Art@work also plans to use art to help Kenya s diverse cultures know their cultural roots, values and morals that will foster the building of National Cohesion. Art@work will nurture and develop local art talent to facilitate the creation of sustainable jobs from art.

The founder Roy Gitahi who hosted our After Office Hours session in April also owns Wabunii SACCO a savings and credit organization sponsored by ART AT WORK to provide financial inclusion and financial solutions to creative’s like Visual Artists, Performing artists, Creative Writers and anyone using their gifts or creativity to make a living and who have no collateral that traditional financial institutions demand for, when advancing loans