Tertiary students are confronted with a music industry-focused Creative Economy Hackathon during TEXPO STEAMON 25, requiring them to devise solutions for pressing challenges within the field.
The Technopreneurship Development Centre and Telco have partnered to host TEXPO STEAMON 25, a 5-day hackathon taking place from 22 to 26 September 2025 at the Harare Institute of Technology Innovation Hub. This event aims to bring together tertiary students to develop tech solutions for the creative economy, particularly addressing market gaps in music tracking.
One of the main challenges in Africa's music ecosystem is the lack of a proper music royalty tracking system. TEXPO STEAMON 25 presents an opportunity to address this issue through the PlayFair challenge, where participants are tasked with building a solution for digitizing, preserving, and making accessible Africa's traditional music heritage.
The challenge requires participants to create a device based on Raspberry Pi for the music preservation solution. The solution should incorporate advanced music recognition technology, such as digital fingerprinting or music recognition technology, to accurately detect songs played in real-time at events, live streams, radio, or streaming platforms.
In addition, the system should include a robust database system that registers works, including details like featured artists, producers, and rights percentages. It should also communicate with local and international collecting societies, leveraging reciprocity agreements to track global usage and royalty collections.
The platform should provide creators, producers, and other rights holders access to transparent, easy-to-understand dashboards showing when and where their music was used, how royalties were calculated, and payments made. It should also incorporate GDPR-compliant data practices focusing on user privacy and secure handling of data to protect creators' rights and ensure trust.
Interested students should apply immediately for TEXPO STEAMON 25, which has a registration deadline of 31 July 2025. The event will also feature the RhythmKeepers challenge, which focuses on digital preservation of traditional music in Africa.
This is the third edition of the Steam On Hackathon series, with the inaugural event held at St Georges in 2023. By participating in TEXPO STEAMON 25, students can contribute to the preservation and fair compensation of Africa's rich musical heritage while gaining valuable experience in tech innovation.
[1] SoundExchange: https://www.soundexchange.com/ [2] Vollou: https://vollou.com/ [3] Reciprocity Agreements: https://www.cisac.net/resources/reciprocal-relationships [4] Music Recognition Technology: https://www.acoustid.org/ [5] Shazam-like APIs: https://developer.shazam.com/apis/
- To tackle the problem of music royalty tracking in Africa's music ecosystem, students participating in TEXPO STEAMON 25 are encouraged to build a solution that incorporates a Raspberry Pi-based device equipped with advanced music recognition technology for real-time song detection, as well as a database system for easy registration and tracking of works.
- Beyond the PlayFair challenge, TEXPO STEAMON 25 also features the RhythmKeepers challenge, which emphasizes digital preservation of traditional African music, promoting a blend of technology, education-and-self-development, entertainment, and cultural heritage in today's digital lifestyle.
