Award-winning Nigerian singer-songwriter, Oluwatosin Ajibade, popularly known as Mr. Eazi, has created the Africa Music Fund (AMF) in a move to support existing and emerging African artists.
Through the AMF, the artiste said he aims to create a new funding model for the music business in Africa.
Mr. Eazi also disclosed that the Fund is worth $20 million dollars with investment firm, 88mph, as lead investor.
He noted that one of his primary motivations for funding music is to provide financial support for artistes to expand their catalog as many investors and financial institutions don’t understand the business of music and as a result, are unable to properly fund musicians.
“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,” he told CNN.
According to Mr. Eazi, selected artists will be given funds upfront depending 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.
Continuing, he explained: “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.”
