Africa-Press – Seychelles. To mark its 30th anniversary and 25 years of Paradise FM, the Seychelles Broadcasting Corporation (SBC) yesterday launched its new Audio-on-demand App dubbed ‘Leko’.
This took place on the premises of the National Museum of History where a special road show was being held to celebrate the FM station’s Silver jubilee.
‘Leko’denotes the cultural heritage of Seychelles, past and present and aims at targeting audiences across the world.
The App was launched with a back-catalogue of radio programmes and music from Seychellois artists offering a variety of genres such as retro, traditional and current songs.
The chairman of the SBC board, Gerard Lafortune, officially launched the app in the presence of the chief executive of SBC, Berard Dupres; the principal secretary for Culture, Cecile Kalebi; the head of radio programmes Jeanette Julienne; the principal for Radyo Sesel, Thelma Pool; and members of the public who had come to watch the show.
The App massively increases the availability of local content to audiences in Seychelles and around the world with exclusive music rights from various artists.
Mr Lafortune noted that the objective of the platform is to give additional value and exposure to the work of local artists as well as ensure a small revenue.
‘Leko’ valorises two groups of people, the producers and the participants of the programmes.
‘Leko’is available on subscription and SBC is offering artists the opportunity to release their singles exclusively on the app for a certain period of time before general release. This is to also aid in preventing piracy and allow the artist to have a return on investment.
Mr Lafortune described piracy as an act that destroys creativity as artists in Seychelles lose out on selling of their songs. Artists will also continue to receive their royalty contributions after the end of the exclusivity period.
Radyo Seseland Paradise FM apps will remain free whereas ‘Leko’ will need a monthly subscription of US $9 (R130) monthly, a six-month subscription of US $48 (R696) and annually US $77 (R1139).
The app also offers certain limited number of free contents to allow users to sample the app before signing up.
Mr Lafortune said the celebration is to mark the 30 years of SBC, 25 years of Paradise FM and the birth of ‘Leko’. He added that “going digital has brought along various benefits such as better picture and sound quality”.
Various artists already feature with new singles on the app such as ‘Juliah’ with ‘Leker fermal’, Ruben with ‘Begeye’, Auspicious with ‘Fini Abitye’, Highness with ‘Maler’, Giorgio Bello with ‘Take me away’ and currently popular trending artist Daniel with ‘Lakle.’
The public had the opportunity to hear these exclusive songs for the first time yesterday at the launch of the app and also those following via Paradise FM.
CEO Dupres said “we are doubling our annual remittance to SACS (Seychelles Authors and Composers Society) to enable payment of royalties to artists whose works are streamed on ‘Leko’.”
He added that it is to further their commitment to give back to the artists as well as uphold their mandate for entertainment.
Artists will be able to register in two ways for the app, one is the usual way which is reviewed by the music committee and then launched on the radio which are then automatically uploaded to ‘Leko’. The other artists releasing singles will have to approach SBC and negotiate a period of exclusivity right on the app. This is a mutual agreement between SBC and the artist and no fee is needed to register.
Popular artist Daniel (Daniel Francourt) said the app is a fantastic idea to promote the youth and the Seychelles culture.
He highlighted the importance of supporting the app which directly supports the artists and also stressed on promoting anti-piracy which directly affects the artists’ sales.
‘Highness’ (Nelson Esther) said the platform is a good strategy for all artists and aid in combating piracy. Julia Jeannevol, popularly known as ‘Juliah’, added that the app is a good initiative by SBC as many artists face difficulties with piracy when releasing their works.
She further added that the app is like spotify but a localised version for the people and artists of Seychelles.
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