African music service uduX has partnered with Nigeria-based FinTech company PiggyVest to launch a new fan investment vehicle called PopRev.
Launching in mid May 2021, PopRev will let fans invest in artists’ music by buying shares in their works, with the first round of artist investment opportunities to be announced soon.
According to the two companies, the PopRev platform “fuses elements of crypto-currency, social networking and influencer nodes”.
Fans will be able to track their investments via the uduX platform (online and in-app), as well as obtain real-time insights into the streaming performance of the music they’ve invested in.
PopRev will also allow investors to invite friends to the uduX platform to listen to the artists’ music and investors stand the chance to win “real-time experiences” with these artists.
PopRev is the first ever music product from PiggyVest, an online savings and investment platform with over 2 million customers.
The company originally launched as Piggybank.ng in January 2016 and rebranded to PiggyVest in April 2019 when it started offering direct investment opportunities in addition to online savings.
uduX claims to be “the first African-owned streaming platform to have all three global major record companies signed to its service”.
Universal Music Group inked a licensing deal with uduX in April 2019, becoming the first major music company to license its catalog to the service. The company has since been licensed by Sony Music and Warner Music Group.
“For fans, it’s a way of sharing in the success of the music they like, and literally becoming more invested in those artists.”
Chidi Okeke, uduX
Chidi Okeke, CEO of uduX, said: “We’re thrilled to be launching this groundbreaking platform with PiggyVest, one of the biggest success stories of the African financial tech sector of the last decade.
“We’ve been thinking about new and upcoming artists and the challenges they currently face.
“In this model we treat them like small businesses and encourage investment in them, but importantly they retain control of their masters.
Added Okeke: “For fans, it’s a way of sharing in the success of the music they like, and literally becoming more invested in those artists.
“PopRev will help grow the local music industry – it will see revenues flowing to Nigerian and local artists from both Nigerian and international investors – and that will feed back to the entire music ecosystem here.”
“This is a music business solution that builds equity for African artists and the local music industry and that will be very attractive to our investors.”
Somto Ifezue, PiggyVest
Somto Ifezue, CEO PiggyVest, added: “uduX are a very innovative solutions platform within the music eco-system and we’re thrilled to work with them.
“This is a music business solution that builds equity for African artists and the local music industry and that will be very attractive to our investors.
“We believe this product will help shape a new business model of revenue generation and open up the market for more data driven investment.”
“An initiative like PopRev will afford a lot of creators who, for example struggled through the lockdown, the privilege to create without concerns of funding.”
Davido
Nigerian Afrobeats star Davido, who supports the new platform, said: “The COVID-19 and lockdown situation made it more obvious than ever that it is not sustainable for artists to depend solely on live performances to fund and extend their art.
“An initiative like PopRev will afford a lot of creators who, for example struggled through the lockdown, the privilege to create without concerns of funding. This is timely and needful.”Music Business Worldwide
