Popular music site NotJustOK rebrands its streaming platform as it plans to extend its reach beyond Africa.
Popular music entertainment site, NotJustOK (NJO) has unveiled a massive rebrand of its music streaming platform.
Formerly known as MyNotJustOK, the streaming platform is now called Mino Music.
In a statement made available to Pulse on Friday, November 16, 2018 , Mino Music is a modern and more user-friendly streaming service.
According to the statement, "the rebrand comes as a well-needed shift in brand identity, as NotJustOK Inc. looks to use the Mino Music app to expand their reach across the African continent, as well as solidify their position as the go-to music streaming service in Africa."
Mino Music is as a result of NotJustOK realizing that a large percentage of its monthly users found it difficult to differentiate between the top music site and the streaming service.
"MyNotJustOK lacked its own identity and this made it difficult for the app to stand on its own without NotJustOk. After proper evaluation of customer expectations and current trends in the way African music is perceived, it was inevitable that a total brand refresh was needed" says CEO of NotJustOK Inc., Ademola Ogundele.
"We went back to the drawing board, realigning our vision to recreate a brand that would be deemed strong, memorable, and sustainable. And NotJustOK strongly believes that Mino Music is that brand" he further says.
The name “Mino”, which means “music”, was derived from the South Sotho language of the Basotho people, an official language spoken in Lesotho and South Africa.
Apart from the new name, the rebranded system consists of a different logo, new vibrant colour palettes, typography and tone of voice.
Created in 2006 by Ademola Ogundele, NotJustOK started off as a personal blog.
In June 2008, Ogundele posted a clip of Nigerian star 9ice performing at The Nelson Mandela 90th Birthday Tribute in Hyde Park in London. This led to a huge increase in traffic for the website.
NotJustOK quickly evolved from a blog to a music website focused on free downloads of Nigerian music after this.
This change coincided with the rising interest of the African diaspora in Nigerian music. The site would be a source for those home and abroad to get access to the latest Nigerian songs.
Within two years, NJO quickly dominated the online music market. Its growth was overseen by Ogundele and Ovie Ofugara.
NJO achieved this by gaining exclusive music content from top Nigerian acts such as 2face Idibia, Psquare, D'banj, M.I Abaga and others. The website also served as a digital media store for Nigerian music albums.
At the height of its dominance, NJO's famous audio tag could be heard not only on music playlists on your phone or laptop but also at birthday parties, nightclubs and even in movies. Also, a placement on NotJustOK could launch an artist's career.
As the Nigerian music scene shifted from free downloads to streaming services, NotJustOK adjusted to the change. It launched its streaming app in 2013 to meet up with the demands of the modern music market.
While the site no longer has a monopoly on the consumption of Nigerian music online, the new version of its streaming app indicates that it is ready to be a power player in the music streaming business in Africa.
The Mino Music mobile app is available on iOS and Google Play stores.