KasiMp3 Founder Mokgethwa Mapaya

KasiMP3 is one of the biggest digital music platforms in SA. In this interview we got the opportunity to chat with the founder of KasiMP3, Mokgethwa Mapaya

Briefly tell us about yourself?
I’m Mokgethwa Mapaya founder of kaismp3. I was born in Limpopo and bread in Tembisa. My highest qualification is matric, which I got studying at Zitikeni Secondary School in Tembisa.  I started learning code at the age of 15 with C, learned Java and Assembler at tertiary, although I was incredible with the latter because I had a great passion for robotics. I studied IT at Vaal University of Technology for 6 months and dropped out, I then moved to Computer Systems in the same institution for 6 months and I dropped out again. I moved to Tshwane University of Technology to study Computer Systems again for 2 years and dropped out for the last time. I worked as a C# developer for 3 years and specialized as an Integration Developer for 4 years.
Please tell us about your childhood, how where you like growing up?
I’m a product of teenage pregnancy, which meant both of my parents were absent finishing their studies; as a result I was raised by my uncles and grandfathers, which also turned out to be a blessing in disguise. I spent the first 6 years of my life at the Limpopo village of Ga Malebogo with my mom’s family. My grandfather from my mother’s side was an inventor and very entrepreneurial, he owned a small farm and a shop; he also had a home laboratory where as kids we were prohibited from entering. I even remember me building my own small laboratory next to his, and every time we sat around the fire he would always coach me. The only space I was allowed to play in was my uncle’s room, who was Rastafarian. His room had a lot of posters of Bob Marley, Peter Tosh and Lucky Dube, he also had loads of reggae music tapes, Mzwakhe Mbuli’s music, he also had taped Martin Luther and Malcom X’s speeches. The stimulation in my uncle’s room laid my foundation as a conscious individual. When I was 6 I moved in with my grandparents from my father’s side in Tembisa. My grandfather from my father’s side was more of a mechanical engineer, every weekend we were always fixing a car at home and I would often be the junior engineer. My uncle from my father’s side was an electrical engineer, I always wanted to work with him in his mysterious laboratory, but he would always turn me away because he believed the equipment is too dangerous for me. My uncle and grandfather from my father’s side passed away before I was 9, as a result I withdrew from the whole mission of being scientist, I focused on football and arcade games. When I was 14 years I was in the room that used to belong to my uncle and I stumbled upon his equipment and books, then the rest was history.
Which artist or song that made you fall in love with music?
Arthur Mafokate  – Amagents aya phanda
Who or what inspired you to start KasiMP3?
At first all I wanted to build platform where we could have access to local music, but after seeing how the music industry is poorly engineered and how much upcoming artists suffer, I was motivated to build a platform that would reengineer the whole music industry.

Who is your target market (Who can get their music on KasiMP3)?
Our target is the broad based music industry. We are open to any artist from any background.
Please tell us about the process, do you select songs or can anyone with a song upload? (How does it work?)
An artist visits www.kasimp3.co.za , registers himself, uploads his own songs, and then the system will give him back download links to share with his fans.
What makes KasiMP3 different from other music platforms out there?
Our concept of “Download Currency” is the only one of its kind in the whole world. The basic idea of the concept is instead of selling the music, give the music for free in a controlled system and sell the influence the music have over the fans to the advertisers.
Is KasiMP3 focusing on all genres or one specific genre? If is focusing in all the genres, which genre is being played and downloaded a lot?
We cater for all genres; House music is the most downloaded, followed closely by Hip Hop.
It’s easy to download songs on KasiMP3?, how is having it (KasiMP3) preventing piracy?
We deal with piracy on 3 levels, the first level check we have a black list of over 200 artist names, which are checked every time someone uploads a song. The second level verification can be done by anyone sending an email to [email protected] to report a song. The third level check is before we pay-out royalties we do a manual check.

How can an artist make money out of his/ her music using KasiMP3?
Every time when a download link is clicked the artist earns 20 cent.

What’s hindering artists to promote their music out there? 
Artist are so fixated on Radio play-listing that they are totally blinded to all the other means they could use to rise to stardom.
What makes you proudly South African?
Although I’m ashamed of South African football, what make me proudly South African is the Jika Majika dance moves and the ladies who scream in the background of kwaito songs.
Do you think there are opportunities for young people in Africa within Africa?
There’s an abundance of opportunities in Africa cause unlike Europe and North America a lot of things haven’t been done yet, we just need to stop being victims of Africa’s immediate past. Life is about cycles, the modern world used to revolve around Rome, then the British who were once ruled by the Romans, then North American who were once ruled by the British, the most logical place for this cycle to move next is somewhere in Africa.

What are thoughts about xenophobic attacks that are happening around townships?
Xenophobia and high rape stats are some of the symptoms of a social system that’s struggling to deal with its anger and hate variables. During the apartheid times the black man consumed a lot of anger and hate from the white world. The problem is anger and hate are generalizations of negative energy and what we know about energy in general is that it can neither be created or destroyed. There are 2 ways of dealing with this negative energy, change it to positive energy through therapy or move it to the next person to deal with, unfortunately the latter is always the earlier of the 2 to do ,  all you have to do is pick someone who is weaker than you and give the negative energy away. Black man would come back into the black world with a lot of this white world anger and hate, the first people they would pick on is the women and kids, some even try to find therapy in the abuse of alcohol, womanizing and living beyond their means. All this negative energy results in a black society on a rapid self-destruction path constantly on the lookout for someone weaker to carry our anger and hate. Homosexuals, kids, women, and our neighbouring African brothers and sisters are all collateral damage of this process.
What are your thoughts on leadership in Africa?
The leadership in Africa is a joke.

 Who has given you the best advice? What was it?
My friend Sandile Mbewana often used to say “be patient, It gets really dark before the sun comes up again”
Who is your favourite artist at the moment? And why?
All the kasimp3 artists are my favourites and they going to be the biggest stars to ever walk this earth.
What do you know now you wish you knew then?
If this predicament ends with me being the founder of kasimp3, then the last thing I would want do is change something in my past.
What advice do you have for young people who want to start their own project?
Find your element and fail so much that you can’t fail anymore
How can people get in touch with you (facebook, twitter, website and etc)?
Personal  www.twitter.com/MokgethwaMapaya  business

www.twitter.com/kasimp3  www.facebook.com/kasimp3