Beatafrik
A multivendor beat marketplace for African producers
What this system does
Beatafrik is a BeatStars-style marketplace built for African music producers. Producers run their own storefronts, upload masters and stems, and sell under Non-Exclusive or Exclusive licenses. The platform handles preview generation with watermarking, multi-currency pricing across five African currencies, and a two-tier approval flow that keeps unapproved files out of long-term storage until an admin signs off. Payments run through Paystack and PayPal, and the whole thing sits behind Cloudflare with a dedicated upload subdomain to get around shared-hosting file-size limits.
What needed solving
African producers didn't have a marketplace built around their own payment rails and currencies — the established beat-selling platforms are built for USD-first, card-first buyers, which leaves out a lot of local producers and buyers.
How this system solves it
A dedicated marketplace with multi-currency pricing (NGN, GHS, USD, ZAR, KES), Paystack as a first-class payment option alongside PayPal, and the same license/preview/storefront mechanics producers already expect from the bigger platforms.
Built into the system
Producer storefronts
Each producer manages their own catalog, pricing, and profile inside the marketplace.
Watermarked preview streaming
Full-length previews are generated automatically and watermarked so masters stay protected until purchase.
Two-tier approval flow
Beats and storefronts are approved independently, and files only move to permanent storage after admin sign-off.
Multi-currency checkout
Pricing and checkout support NGN, GHS, USD, ZAR, and KES.
License-aware licensing
Non-exclusive and exclusive licenses enforce different file requirements at upload time.
Producer & admin dashboards
Separate dashboards for producers, admins, and platform managers with granular permissions.
Inside the system
Click any preview to view it fullscreen. Interface previews shown here should be swapped for real product screenshots as each system ships.
What it's built with
Walking through the flow
A producer uploads a beat and its licensing files, which sit in private pending storage. An admin reviews and approves both the beat and the producer's storefront independently. Once approved, a watermarked preview is generated automatically and the file moves to long-term storage; rejected uploads never leave pending storage. A buyer previews the watermarked stream, checks out in their local currency, and receives the unwatermarked file matching the license they bought.
This system is live and handling real usage in production.
Want to see it running?
Beatafrik has a live or demo environment available below.
