The numbers game There have been a few developments that I have been questioning regarding a few Namibian music platforms. There are a few discrepancies that I would like to question and point out. I think we are living in the era where some individuals are “doctoring numbers” on these local music platforms or websites. The numbers just don’t add up. The numbers I speak of are the number of times a song is downloaded… this on a questionable website that I’ve been monitoring for the past few months.There is no questioning the importance of the website but if it is an illusion it is selling then I think someone needs to ask questions. The platform I speak of houses some Namibian songs. There have been complaints as well from artists who have been charged to be streamed on the website while others don’t get charged for such. People have been complaining about the preferential treatment of some artists because their music is always uploaded there while other songs don’t even get a chance to be on the website. So it’s really sad that the website that prides itself in promoting Namibian music appears to discriminate.
So back to the numbers I was talking about. I believe some of the numbers on the website just don’t paint an accurate reflection. The website I speak of allows you to see how many times a song has been downloaded and what the trending songs and such. What has been worrying me is how some artists who are not well known or ones who do not have enough publicity or promotion have been able to rake in thousands of downloads on this platform but on other platforms such their YouTube and Soundcloud accounts they can’t even get near the same amount of downloads or views. Another questionable thing is also how upcoming artists, some of which are not known at all, can top the download charts and beat out the already popular and established artists when it comes to downloads. We also don’t know how many times a song has been streamed but we do know how many times it has been downloaded. If it is possible to show how many times a song has been downloaded surely the website owners can show us how many times the song has been played. I may be wrong for coming up with my own conclusions but if the website owners can show us how many people frequent the website and such I’ll be a believer.
But for now I’ll have my suspicions until they are dispelled.
June Shimuoshili
june@namibiansun.com