The relaunch of the D’Music app by Digicel (Trinidad and Tobago) Limited features new features and a new design, addressing some of the concerns raised in the previous version of the app, and including a focus on local content. Artistes in all genres of music are being encouraged to send their music to the company for inclusion in the app.
Communications Sponsorship/Event Executive Colin Greaves said the relaunch of the app is part of Digicel’s thrust to be their customers’ digital lifestyle partner, developing products and services which their customers are passionate about. “We therefore developed the D’Music app, which basically complements their lifestyle in so many ways, especially us being Caribbean people and understanding the importance of placing a spotlight and emphasis on our music and our artistes. So we’ve focused heavily on local and regional artistes and local content.”
Digital Products Manager Cilicia Albert said the revamped app addressed many of the complaints by customers. “Unlike YouTube and other streaming apps, you can play music out of the app, there are no ads and you don’t need to have a credit card. Customers can play music 24/7, download songs, which can be listened to outside of WiFi and data connectivity, connect it to their car’s Bluetooth system, and create and download playlists.”
Albert said the app can be accessed through the MyDigicel App and in the Apple and Google Play stores. “For prepaid customers, subscription to the app is $65 monthly, so once you have the required top-up or balance, you can access the app. Postpaid customers with packages of $350 and up can access it through their postpaid plan. The subscription enables us to pay the artistes their royalties once their music is played.”
Albert said the team has been going to music conferences and other touch points, to reach out to artistes, producers, songwriters, everyone. “Streaming is the music industry standard, so we want to assist local artistes to raise their standards to meet international standards. This is why we recently went to Precision Productions’ Audio Essentials Conference and Music TT’s Business Forum. The information is there, they need to get to that standard so we would be willing to work with them. But we have to get certain information because of course we’ll need to make sure that it’s a mutual partnership, that we’re both working together, and it’s not something one-sided.”
Albert said ideally an artiste should already be affiliated with a record label or a digital distributor, such as TuneCore or Orchard, “so we can just make a request there and payment is facilitated there. If not, we can facilitate them having a direct link with our third party vendor of the app, and they will become that music distributor for them and coordinate the payment as needed, but ideally it’s always best to go through those record labels like Orchard or Tunecore because those teams already have things facilitated for the artistes to be with any streaming service.”
Greaves said the app is an opportunity for local musicians in all genres to get their music onto a streaming platform. “At Digicel, we want to offer artistes the full 360-degree experience, so it’s not just putting a song on an app for people to listen to. It’s about giving you a profile, we can do push notifications, put you as a featured artiste on the cover page, on our social media pages, on our Home and Entertainment channels, and on Loop TT. We really want the artistes of T&T to know that the app is there, just come and give us the music, put us in contact with your management teams and we will go through the various contracts with you so you will be paid once your music is played on the app. So, the same way you would send it to radio and YouTube and email lists, send it to us. We can only upload what comes into our purview, so send it to us, and you can be sure that the hundreds of thousands of people in our digital subscriber pools will be able to access your music. We are open to all ages, all genres, all artistes.”
To have their music featured on D’Music, artistes can email digicelttcontent@digicelgroup.com and send:
Artist Name,
Brief Biography,
Social Media Handle(s)
Music (If live on YouTube or Soundcloud links can be sent)
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