Upon receiving the award for Best Album of the Year at the Isango Star Awards, artist Bruce Melodie expressed concerns about the livelihoods of artists and content creators in Rwanda, urging the government to expedite efforts to enable music and creative platforms to be monetized so that their talent and work can generate tangible profits.
Bruce Melodie said that the year 2025 is coming to an end, and it has been a year of success and lessons in his musical journey.
Highlights of the year include the release of his album Colorful Generation, which won the Best Album of the Year award at the Isango Star Awards, held on Sunday night, December 21, 2025, at a ceremony at the Kigali Conference and Exhibition Village, also known as Camp Kigali.
Although he is pleased with these awards and the progress he has made, Bruce Melodie noted that this year has also been a learning experience regarding the music market.
He stated that it is frustrating that in other countries an artist can sustain themselves through their music, while in Rwanda it is still difficult, largely because many music and creative platforms are not monetized, meaning that artists and content creators do not benefit financially from their work.
He therefore called on the government to address this issue so that artists and content creators can earn from their work, and the country can also benefit.
He said, “We are also learning other ways to sell music, because it is frustrating that music can sustain someone elsewhere even if it’s no longer there, but we also ask the government to monetize music platforms, including those we use for content creation (YouTube), even though sometimes it doesn’t work perfectly. But if they assist us, it will follow a proper path and other things we can handle, it won’t continue to be difficult. Because it is a great opportunity for revenue to enter the country, we really need their support.”
In April 2025, the Minister of Youth and Arts Development, Dr. Utumatwishima Jean Nepo Abdallah, expressed hope to YouTube users that in the near future they could start earning significant money, depending on discussions the Rwandan government wants to have with Google.
He mentioned this while attending the Education, Technology, Culture, Sports, and Youth Committee in Parliament.
He said that there is a request from young YouTube users for Rwanda to be included in countries allowed to receive advertising, which would enable users on the platform to earn money.
He stated, “We have been in discussions with the Ministry of Technology and RURA to see how agreements can be made so that Rwanda can be included among countries allowed to receive ads, allowing youth who upload content on YouTube to get paid.”
This was announced while many YouTube users have long complained that the platform does not support them financially because ads are not available in Rwanda, causing significant losses.
A sustainable solution to this problem could come from collaboration between Rwanda and Google, which would benefit artists and other social media creators while also generating tax revenue for the country.
YouTube was launched on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim, who previously worked at PayPal. Since then, it has reached billions of people worldwide and plays a major role in distributing music and other arts.
To increase its profits, YouTube introduced a program to pay users based on the number of viewers and watch time. To qualify for monetization, a person must have at least 1,000 subscribers and sufficient watch hours.
However, the pursuit of views on YouTube has led some to use clickbait titles, fake news, and other attention-grabbing methods, which has resulted in account suspensions or video removals.
Isibo TV journalist Niyigaba Clement, known as DC Clement, recently told InyaRwanda that the solution to this problem lies with RURA, which is the authority responsible for regulating the operations of technology-related sectors.
He said, “It has caused us significant losses. On my channel DC TV Rwanda, 60% of visitors are Rwandans, which means I only earn about 40% of the revenue I should be earning.”
Additionally, Julius Chitta, founder of the YouTube channel Chitta Magic, told InyaRwanda that the removal of ads from their videos has caused major losses, especially since their content is mostly viewed in Rwanda.
He said, “What should be done is to have a partnership agreement between Rwanda and Google so that AdSense and YouTube can operate in Rwanda, ads return, and content creators and the country benefit through taxes.”
He added that currently content creators pay taxes in the United States, while the revenue should be entering Rwanda.
He said, “When we have that right, content creators benefit, the country collects taxes, and the money we earn is used in Rwanda. This way, it benefits Rwandans and the country as a whole.”
