Davido’s Social Media Birthday Contribution an eye-opener to Africa’s Content Creators.
Davido’s Social Media Birthday Contribution an eye-opener to Africa’s Content Creators.
Quite too often we get it twisted when we hear the word ‘artist’ we tend to narrow it down to musicians, well, ART is so amorphous — -right from painting, sculpture making, education, singing, acrobatics, gaming, sports to culture preservation, basically the expression or application of human creative skill and imagination.
YouTube since its genesis, has been the major source of income-generating platform for artists across the continent and all over the globe.YouTube was founded on February 14th, 2005 California in the United States by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed. While it’s one thing to make money and another to enjoy what you do, YouTube gave the artist the immortal chance to make money doing the thing they love.
The hunch behind YouTube was and still is, you earn based on your viewership and subscription which boils down to your fans or following and this begs the question, can artists have more than just one revenue stream?
Undoubtedly, YES! Over the years we’ve seen musicians get involved in adverts and campaigns trails of products or even perform at concerts.YouTube opened a whole new world whereas artists only reap what you sow, well at least according to Forbes the highest YouTube earner, Ryan Kaji bags around $29.5 million in a year.
It is however quite imperative to note that YouTube has its shares of shortcomings which rip at Africa more than any other part of the world. Africa arguably has the lowest YouTube returns across the globe. This is due to its small market, advertisers like Google AdSense tend to concentrate on wider markets for leverage.
In April, YouTube EMEA director, Ben Wilson hinted at reviewing YouTube’s 10,000 views monetization rule. “We know that in Africa, in particular, channels typically have lower subscriber bases compared to the kind of viewership that they are generating and that is one of the areas that we are actively looking at,” He said.
With YouTube taking almost 50% cut from your pay, cui bono? Definitely not the artists who benefit. For far too long the many perceived revenue streams for artists haven’t been fully exploited. As an artist, your fan ship is your net worth, they control what you earn. Technological advancements over time have seen giant social media tech companies like Facebook, Twitter, and Tiktok develop monetization tools that only make it easier for artists to get income from their art. Thanks to technology, it’s a gift that never stops giving.
The novel Coronavirus exposed how vulnerable and prone the entertainment industry is to so many external factors. A world of no concerts or performances by artists due to covid restrictions is something peculiar and no one had envisioned it. Humans however have a way of devising means of survival in alignment with the current circumstances. This is the very context we’ve seen artists raise money through fans’ contributions on podcasts, YouTube channels, Tiktok, Twitter spaces, and Facebook live videos. Art models a society and has a way of inculcating values into younger generations. As humans we’re are emotionally attracted to art. Davido raising Ksh 31 million from his fans on his birthday is akin to a famous analogy by American author, Zig Ziglar; he said we don’t buy for logical reasons, we buy for emotional reasons — -if an artist moves you by his/her art, chances are, you will buy it or rather contribute and appreciate the art.
There is more to fans’-generated revenue for artists than just YouTube and soliciting funds from social media.TeapMe, a new Kenyan tech company is taking revenue streams for artists even a notch higher.
One only needs to have an account with TeapMe, share his/her profile then the fans can team via the website which is MPESA integrated. The money matures for withdrawal once it hits just Ksh 100.
YouTube is simply just a make-do for now. Tiktok and Facebook are yet to pass the litmus test. I genuinely don’t think online contribution can match these three as it is susceptible to scam.
TeapMe however is obviously the more-rated one. It’s just a class ahead. A truly exceptional technology, cashless -economy-oriented one that walks with his own aura and space on the tech industry, in general, an epic encounter and an angel descending from heaven with indescribable beauty and a white, pillowed grace. Any tech-savvy individual would mention TeapMe in the same breath as Amazon but in the context of art.