SemaBOX Wants To Bring Their All-Inclusive Podcast Studio To The Rest Of Africa
SemaBOX is a one-stop affordable podcasting studio in Nairobi that is building community — and looking to expand its model around Africa. Read how they plan to do that with Maurice Otieno, the Executive Director of Baraza Media Lab, a co-creator of SemaBOX.
Each week, I write a column about the growth of podcasting in Africa from my perch in Nairobi, Kenya.
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(August 13, 2020)
By Paula Rogo
In last week’s column, I talked about the attraction of African podcasters to Anchor, and how this one-stop shop platform is like manna to new podcasters.
Let me introduce to you SemaBOX, a new podcasting studio and community in Nairobi that is looking to also be a one-stop shop for podcasters in Kenya’s capital. SemaBOX, which launched last month, is a collaboration between Baraza Media Lab and StudioTISA (Sema means “to say” or “to speak” in Kiswahili. So it essentially translates to Speaker Box).
StudioTISA is a Nairobi-based portable live performance platform (we can credit them for many of the quarantine concerts we enjoyed). Baraza Media Lab provides the space and resources needed to enable media and entrepreneurs to collaborate, innovate and drive the growth and capacity of independent media. Access to the space is based on membership similar to a co-working space.
Baraza Media Lab was one of the first organizations to understand and invest in Africa Podfest. So the Podfest team and I have been somewhat privy to Baraza’s goals to build a podcast studio, but we knew little of when and how they would do it.
Now we know.
Studio space for podcasting is a tricky area in Nairobi because there are a number of studios in the city, but few that cater exclusively to the needs of podcasters. What are those needs exactly? And how do you provide them to podcasters?
So I reached out to Maurice Otieno, the Executive Director of Baraza Media Lab, for a quick chat about SemaBOX and how they plan to serve podcasters in Kenya, and eventually, around the continent.
*This interview has been edited for clarity and length*
Q: There’s been a lot of buzz around SemaBOX since you launched. I have yet to visit. But if I came in, what would I find?
A: SemaBOX is a plug-and-play podcasting studio where you come in and you don’t have to think about the technical side. So you’ll find a ready-made studio with recording equipment, microphones and everything in place. You’ll also find a sound engineer within the space that is ready to help you record and give tips on how to do it better. Come in, record and within 24 hours — depending on what is wanted — they’ll send you a finished version to share with the world.
Q: Wow, so it includes everything: recording, editing….
A: Yes. The other option we’re also adding is that the SemaBOX website will also act as a distribution mechanism of the podcast. So if Paula records her podcast, we also upload to the website just to help you market it .
Q: Actually, I was looking through the website, and I saw that there was a podcast posted there. I was trying to figure out if it was a SemaBOX/Baraza Media Lab production or if this was an independent podcaster…
A: It belongs to someone who recorded at SemaBOX
Q: I guess my next question for you is why build this?
A: I think even from the very high level survey that we gave our Baraza Media Lab membership group….Out of 110 members, 28 of them were podcasters. So that’s already a significant chunk of our membership that was interested in podcasting. So there’s that. And Even with [Africa Podfest] starting a festival around podcasting showed that there was enough interest in that space for us to put resources behind it.
We are always looking to invest in new media that is a bit independent and that does not depend on other things to start. If you look at podcasts, they are simple to start…From the technical perspective, it’s not too difficult to start. Most content creators want to focus on “Can I create content?” and not focus on the technicalities about everything.
Also, people keep asking us if we will provide tools for the media they are creating. By tools they mean videography, podcasting equipment, editorial work etc. At some point, depending again on research and what the market says, we may start things like vlogging studios or allow people to edit. There are a couple of things we are working on and that serves our membership and the community.
Q: What are the prices if someone was to use the SemaBOX studio?
A: Pricing is something we’re playing around with. We did high level research on the pricing for recording and editing an episode of a podcast. We found the market rate was ranging between KES4000–7500 ($40–75) per episode. And this was the rate for the independent studios.
Our main ethos as Baraza is to build a community around some of these mediums. As much as we are looking at the financial side, which is important for the sustainability of the lab and the studio, we’re also looking at how to highly subsidize it for a lot of people who are podcasting. We initially came up with a price of KES1500 ($15) per episode and that meant that you come record under 60 minutes. To be honest that was a very naive way of doing the pricing without thinking about why or what is the driver of that price. Now we are reworking it in terms of the costs that we have and what is a bare minimum amount that we can go to. So we are seeing the price come to an average of about KES2000 ($20) per episode for anything under 60 minutes for you to edit. So it’s highly subsidized so that we make more podcasters out there. And so that’s the pricing we have for now.
We’ll later have some add-ons like if you want to include video of your podcast. The pricing for these other add-ons will released [soon] because that’s what we’re working on right now.
Q: SemaBOX is a collaboration between Baraza Media Lab and StudioTISA. How does it work?
A: Baraza as you know are community builders within the media space, including podcasting. We have all these rooms that are underutilized right now, of course due to covid-19. But even before covid-19, we were not fully utilized or fully booked.
So we considered how to repurpose this real estate so it’s useful. StudioTISA had just launched a one-stop for live music for musicians. And they had all this equipment for recording that they were not utilizing. We met and said, why not utilize your assets that are underutilized right now and put it together in our space. They are sound experts. And we are community experts. When you bring those two together it is a match made in heaven. The underlying vision is to create a culture of podcasting and build a community of podcasters where other podcasting communities like Africa Podfest and the like can thrive.
Q: Do other spaces that offer what you offer exist in other places? Are you the first?
A: It’s the first of it’s kind to some extent. But there were already some people who were doing this in and around Nairobi. There’s Portable Voices and they are doing that out of Kibera, I think. But if you look at the model it’s more like a commercial endeavor. It’s portable. They come to you and they do the podcasting from there.
We’re not trying to cannibalize and eat up their work. …There’s a different set of things that we’re doing that’s commercial to be sustainable, but the main goal is to build the community around it. And the community part is the main thing.
Since we launched SemaBOX, there are already people looking to syndicate it. It means how do we open a SemaBOX in Nigeria or South Africa or somewhere else. That means it’s a studio based in someone’s space and we can come up with a commercial arrangement. But the most powerful bit is the hosting and distribution… where you have all these podcasts across Africa on one SemaBOX website…And, again, in collaboration with [others]. It’s knowledge-sharing, training, distribution and production in one place.
Q: I see audio production training, content development training, and media business training on the website. Why add that aspect as opposed to just being a simple studio?
A: Training is something we are willing to build with personnel who are able to deliver that. The main thing we noticed with things like videography and podcasting is that your input dictates the output. And if we don’t control and shape how the input is, the output will just not [be as great]. Training is important to have good output. Training is important to have better listenership…We are willing to work together with partners who can deliver that. So we have better quality of podcasting out there
Q: How do you see SemaBOX thriving five years from now? What do you see coming from it?
A: The reason we named it SemaBOX is so that it becomes its own entity and it does not depend on the founding organizations, Baraza Media Lab and StudioTISA. I see SemaBOX becoming its own entity across Africa…with major distribution across Africa and working with partners who are like minded to do other things that SemaBOX staff cannot do. I’m seeing that happening in the next five years. I see it going across Africa and bringing that podcasting culture and resources with it.
Q: You said Baraza Media Lab are experts on community. Why does community matter in podcasting? I ask because a lot of people see it as a very solo endeavor…
A: I think community matters in the sense that you can’t advocate for any change by yourself. You have to advocate with people who are like minded and people with a similar vision. They have to be people who do the groundwork and the hard work together. And that’s Baraza’s strength.
For us to build the capacity and drive resources towards podcasting, we have to show the masses that it is fruitful. And Baraza is saying why don’t we help organize these communities and these resources and put them in one place and advocate for more potential resources to come in. That’s why community is very very important, not only for resources but also to protect the community…and also for knowledge sharing.
If you are looking to collaborate with SemaBOX or book an appointment to use the studio, connect with the team here.
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Do you know of any other places doing work similar to SemaBOX? Drop a comment or hit me: info@kali.media.
