Support Mideast Tunes and indie music in the MENA
Almost seven years ago, I founded Mideast Tunes, which has now become the largest platform for independent musicians who use music as a tool for social change in the Middle East and North Africa. Its mission is to unite people across social, political and religious barriers by creating constructive discourse through music.
Mideast Tunes has reinforced the value of music as more than just a creative outlet, but as a social tool that amplifies the voices of marginalized communities, especially youth, in a way that transforms the entire narrative around the Middle East and North Africa. The platform is a microcosm of what the region has to offer. Many of our artists are women who perform across a wide variety of genres, or artists from minority communities who face multiple barriers in their search for expression.
Year after year, our growth has been astronomical. More users, more artists, more impact. It has become the go to place for filmmakers, activists, radio hosts, and everyone worldwide to discover the soundtrack of underground scenes across the region. It has resulted in unique collaborations and opportunities for artists who previously struggled to be heard, resulting in them being discovered by the likes of Peter Gabriel.
“Mideast Tunes was a huge resource for us during the making of our feature documentary film Speed Sisters. We wanted to use regional independent bands with a variety of different sounds, and we discovered most of the artists on Mideast Tunes. It really is the best resource for independent Arab music out there.” — Amber Fares, Director of Speed Sisters
We built Mideast Tunes to make sure these artists’ voices remain loud, accessible and consistently amplified.
With no interest from most foundations and donors, for years I have dug into my own savings to keep this project going.
Now with over 1700 artists registered and over 9500 tracks, and Android/iOS mobile apps enjoyed by over 300K users, I’m turning to our community to ask for helping hands. Our last few crowdfunding efforts were a bust, with not more than $1k raised, barely enough to cover our monthly hosting and ongoing development expenses to provide the best possible experience. So I’m left making a public plea in a different format, to anyone who will listen.
We kept Mideast Tunes a nonprofit because we believe socially conscious music should be free for both artists and listeners. We’re constantly seeking ways to monetize the platform by involving our artists, so that they could sustain their own production costs as well, but without the right support I can’t single-handedly take upon those costs to innovate in that direction.
As a child growing up in Iran as a member of the Baha’i minority, [Foad Manshadi’s] family was persecuted for their faith; his politically aware music touches on issues such as capital punishment and women’s rights. “Because of Mideast Tunes I got featured on a lot of other websites and on radio,” Manshadi said recently in a video testimonial. “I owe it to you guys.” — Article on The National
Asking For Help is Hard.
It’s hard to showcase just how much this platform is needed. It’s hard to convince the traditionally minded that music creates movements, and is a vital form of dissent and expression, especially in a region where surveillance and state censorship are the norm. And it’s definitely hard fundraising for a digital platform that people often dismiss as mere “entertainment.”
Here at home, music has become one of the most influential ways people can fight for their rights and cultural identities, many of which faced decades of violent persecution. My small team and I are committed to finding the right people who understand and truly appreciate the importance of seeing this project through to what it needs, in order to truly live up to its longterm potential and sustainability goals. For this music to make a difference, we need to ensure it’s accessible and documented in an advanced platform that celebrates what these artists sacrificed to make their voices heard. This is what Mideast Tunes does.
So I am moving beyond those emails and making this appeal in public to anyone who will listen. We don’t deserve to shut down after seven very hard working years due to lack of support, considering our tremendous growth. Keep the volume up, and let’s continue to provide a unique home to these musicians who truly deserve it.
What We Need
Even though our platform is free, and almost entirely self-funded with the exception of a few small grants (from the Arab Fund for Arts and Culture, Blossom Hill Foundation and CFI media), we have built things as if we were a for-profit. We use the latest technologies to highlight these artists’ work in increasingly creative ways. To grow efficiently, we need:
- Hosting Expenses: It costs us a little over $2K a month for our servers and server administration. That brings us to a total of at least $24K a year.
- Development Costs: $20.4K (roughly $1700/mo) for this year will take us a long way in maintaining our iOS and Android apps, our web app which we’re constantly improving for greater usability, our Chrome/Firefox plugins, our original podcasts, and our newly founded academy.
- Business Development: We have a business plan that we’d love to expand and build upon, but without any resources it’s hard to monetize the platform without a full fledged team to focus on its growth. $50K for 2017 will help us put together the right team to work on this, so that we can come up with multiple streams of revenue that helps artists monetize their presence on the site in new ways that keeps their music accessible to audiences who can’t afford it — while at the same time sustaining Mideast Tunes’ core costs. We don’t want to keep writing posts like these to keep our platform running, but we do need the appropriate investment if we are to do this right.
- That brings us to a total of $94,400 that we’d love to raise this year.
- Most importantly, we need you to believe in us — and just how much we can achieve for the underground music scene in the Middle East and North Africa, and the resulting impact this has in our societies.
The platform is run primarily by volunteers. But take a good look at it. It’s not an easy operation to run without core expenses. Our volunteers and I trust so much in its potential and longterm influence, or else I wouldn’t be writing this.
If interested, please make a donation here: https://mideastunes.com/donate
Other forms of support outside of donations are very welcome too.
