Mxit Music (officially) launches, beats iTunes pricing

It’s been a while since we’ve heard from the African social network, but Mxit finally broke the silence with the announcement of Mxit Music, its digital music download service. If it sounds familiar, it’s because it went live in April earlier this year, but promptly entered stealth mode while it ironed out a few kinks.

Mxit users can snap up the latest hits for around R8.50, R7.00 and R4.00 (850 Moola, 700 Moola and 400 Moola) per track. Mondia Media, the music catalogue provider that manages things like permissions, DRM and royalty payments for the tracks, says that it covers at least 95% of the top international and local artists. Mxit’s partnership with Mondia allows the social network to take care of delivering and billing.

The same tracks sell for around R8.99 in the South African version of iTunes, so Mxit Music has a leg up on the folks from Cupertino, as long as its catalogue remains competitive.

Mondia Media says that, so far, it has engaged with over 700 artists, aggregators and labels — which includes Sony Music, Universal Music and Select Music. Headquarted in Hamburg, Germany, Mondia is the technology and content provider for clients and projects including O Music (launched by DSTV), Samsung’s pan-African music service and the upcoming re-launch of Look & Listen’s digital music retail platform.

Source: BusinessTech