Investing $20 million fund in African music – Mr. Eazi

Nigerian musical artist and founder of emPawa Africa, Mr. Eazi is launching a fund that will invest in Africa’s stars of the future.

Mr. Eazi who’s known in real life as Oluwatosin Ajibade, revealed to CNN that, the Africa Music Fund (AMF), is worth $20 million dollars. The lead investor is a company that gives cash-flow to African businesses.

He says one of his essential inspirations for funding music is to offer financial support for artists to expand their catalogue.

Mr. Eazi further explained that, many investors and financial institutions don’t understand the business of music and as a result, are unable to properly fund musicians.

The “Supernova” composer stated that “artists cannot go to banks to get money for their music because financial institutions don’t understand how to secure intellectual property. They get it for physical properties but not for music. So, because not a lot of people understand the music business, there is no finance product for musicians”.

According to him, selected artists will be given funding depending on their revenue and projected incomes, using metrics such as streaming revenue.

He says, “for artists who already have footprints in the industry, we will just do our research. We can check how much they are earning or likely to earn from their streaming revenue, for example”.

Artists will be given funds upfront based on their revenue to expand their music content. The initial advance invested in an artist’s music will be paid back in installments as the artist’s earnings start to rise, he added.

Mr. Eazi also disclosed that his parent company, emPawa Africa in association with music technology company, Vydia will be launching Cinch Distro, a music distribution platform for new artists. Through Cinch Distro, artists can upload one song to major music stores for 500 naira (about $1.19), or 4000 naira (about $10) for unlimited song uploads.

Again, the singer made it clear that, all artists he funds will have access to information about their content and earning in real-time. Likewise, Mr. Eazi believes that, this initiative will help him to contribute in creating a music industry where Africans are the owners of their own content and intellectual property.

Credit: CNN/Africa , Kobbykyeinews

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