Interview: Sony Music’s Christine Mosha

Mosha’s resume speaks volumes of her contribution to the East African music business. She is the founder of Rockstar Africa – a record label and artists management company established in 2015, propelling the success of several top artists in the region including Alikiba, Ommy Dimpoz and Xtatic.

Presently, her key focus is on expanding Sony Music Entertainment Africa’s roster of local talent and amplifying its international repertoire and catalogue across the region from her office in Dar es salaam, Tanzania.

“My appointment felt like an extension of the long working relationship I’ve had with Sony Music Entertainment Africa,” she says. “It is a fantastic opportunity to impact the music industry in the region. We are bridging the gap between artists and fans looking to discover them, which is the one thing that drives me the most.”

Mosha says the music market is becoming more competitive as local streaming services and international players build their presence in East Africa. Spotify is the latest entrant in the region after it launched its services in Kenya, Uganda, Rwanda and Tanzania in February.

“Artists have a better and fairer chance at international discovery now more than ever,” she says. “I have been a proud supporter of every streaming platform because their presence means more income for artists. However, my worry is whether we are doing enough to ensure our music and content expands beyond the borders we have created for ourselves.”

She adds: “More platforms that we can’t even imagine yet will emerge and it is incumbent upon the industry leaders to manage the potential with smart deal making.”

Last year, the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI), the global trade body for the recorded music industry, opened its first regional office in sub-Saharan Africa to better champion issues affecting the local recording industry. Mosha believes IFPI’s key focus should be on creating better structured intellectual property (IP) rights.

“We are at the point where we are struggling to figure out the monetisation and the growth of our content. IFPI’s approach should be localised and built from the ground up and not solely from the Western or international market system. Africa needs to develop and grow its metrics and version of IP that is deeply rooted in the consumption habits within the region.”

Mosha launched her career in 2006 as a radio presenter, promoter and media marketer at Clouds Media Group, a media conglomerate in Tanzania. “I was most interested in learning how to commercialise talent through events and music sales ­– physical distribution then,” she says. “At the time, there were virtually no female music executives, and the structures in the industry were just starting to develop.”

A year later, she moved to MTV Africa, where she headed up A&R and commercial in East Africa, launching MTV Base in Tanzania. She emerged as one of the keenest minds in music from the region. She’s got plenty of respect for entertainment business execs such as Alex Okosi, Isis Nyong’o, Paul Mayanja, Charles Murito and Jandre Louw, whom she met and worked with at the time, for their practical knowledge and wisdom.

In 2010, she co-founded Rockstar 4000 Entertainment, an independent pan-African music company and content, digital and events production network, alongside Louw. At Rockstar 4000, she oversaw record deals, music publishing and content licensing in partnership with Sony Music, including working on the 2010 FIFA World Cup campaign in South Africa.

“The first artist we signed was gospel singer Rose Muhando, the biggest commercial artist in East Africa at that time and the first African artist to be signed outside of South Africa,” Mosha says. “Soon enough, others followed, like Alikiba, Ommy Dimpoz and Xtatic.”

After more than 15 years, Mosha has earned a place alongside the titans of the music industry in the region, including some of her mentors, like the late Ruge Mutahaba, a well-known Tanzanian music promoter and Clouds Media Group programmes director. Surprisingly, she still considers herself a “student” of the trade. “In a business as unpredictable as ours, things don’t always go according to plan,” she says.

Mosha also spoke about gender inequality in the male-dominated music industry: “As the music industry embraces more women, gender disparity remains. Therefore, we need to look at it as a glass half-full rather than a half-empty scenario and continue to speak up on behalf of each other by advocating for more women to get opportunities at every level.”

The music business isn’t easy for anyone. So what advice does Mosha have for those inspired to follow her lead? “Be persistent but with a purpose. Competence fosters confidence while vision, hard work and fearlessness create the luck you need to be successful. We are more than what we appear to be, and the more we tell and share our story, the longer our legacy lives,” she says.