What is Fakaza? Fakaza can mean different things in different South African languages. In Xitsonga, Fakaza means “Testify” in English while in IsiZulu means to “Demonstrate or Inform”. However, today we are not focusing on the meaning of it, we are going to look at Fakaza South Africa as an Mp3 music download website in South Africa.
Fakaza is a South African music download website and blog. They claim to focus on music, entertainment and lifestyle and other media contents aimed at South African audiences. The music includes South African Hip-Hop, Kwaito and Afro House music, Nigerian Hip-hop, Afro Mp3 songs download, best Africa gospel music download and Gqom.
Gqom is a genre of electronic dance music that emerged in the early 2010s from Durban, South Africa. It developed out of South African house music, Kwaito and hip-hop.
Fakaza SA website was founded in 2016 to meet the demands of South Africans to easily access new music releases from artistes in the country. The website has also enabled upcoming musicians to upload their own songs like Audiomack and Soundcloud in a subdomain referred to as Fakaza Live. During the over 2 year stint of the website, it has grown rapidly to become one of most talked about websites in South Africa.
The site’s name Fakaza has also been used to replace the word “download” among South African youths, for example “I can’t wait to fakaza your album”. Popular SA rapper Cassper Nyovest also told his fans that they can Fakaza his single “Hase Mo States”
Not doing metro anymore but yeh song is out boy. Just google it and fakaza or buy it on iTunes. Whichever way, Spread the music. https://t.co/SUXeHNrrJC
— R.M Phoolo (@casspernyovest) October 5, 2018
What is Fakaza News?
Fakaza News is the news arm of Fakaza South Africa, providing the latest news on South African musicians, celebrities and current affairs.
The website has been criticized and defined as a pirate website in the past, and also been accused of reducing the sales of South African musicians. The site was also blocked on social media by Ambitiouz Entertainment after fans threatened to boycott the label by using Fakaza following a court case against former artiste Fifi Cooper. Rapper AKA has also been threatened with a boycott after ignoring artworks made by fans for his forthcoming album “Touch My Blood”
Is downloading music from Fakaza legal?
According to copyright law, distributing or obtaining a copyrighted work (such as a music file) without the permission of the copy right holder is against the law. Some music files are copyrighted, some are not. Even though some music files are copyrighted, the artists freely give away and provide the songs for download on the internet.
Downloading copyrighted songs, which have been made available by the artist for free download is not illegal. In this case the copyright holder is allowing the free distribution of their work by posting it themselves and controlling the distribution.
Image Courtesy: Fakaza