“Most artistes focus more on the creative side of showbiz than the business angle” Dbanj expressed at the September raffle draw and press briefing organised by the CREAM platform in Lagos.
He said that the industry needed more talented managers and business craftsmen, who knew how to monetise contents and brand artistes.
“Almost every family in Nigeria has a show man, a talented act, but what we need right now are resourceful brand managers and management companies to structure our industry so that artistes can make money out of their crafts,” he stated.
No fewer than ten winners of the August merit and lottery electronic draws were presented with cash rewards ranging from N50,000 to N500,000, while ten more winners emerged during the September draws.
Speaking about the establishment of CREAM platform which was few months ago valued at an estimated sum of $100m he said, “The real reason why the CREAM platform was established was to harness genuine creative talents across the genres of entertainment, arts and entrepreneurship in all the states of Nigeria.”
“I agreed to become an ambassador of Bank of Industry because they told me that they wanted to help structure and better monetise the creative industry. At the time, they did not understand how we ran our business. That was when I started Koko Garri. And then they gave us a loan of N50m to start CREAM platform. And we were able to pay them back in six months. Because in three months we had over three million subscribers. I didn’t expect that.
“Now, some of our merit winners, who were chosen from a pool of entries vetted by our judges, mentors, coaches and A&R namely Harrysong, Wande Coal, Ice Prince, Denrele among others, have become superstars without performing on stage. This is because their works are currently earning them huge income through our different channels of distribution. And they all come from different states of the federation.
Thus, speaking in retrospect during the Q&A, Dbanj said, “Going into business and focusing on the showbiz angle of my career at the time I did has been my greatest decision”.
He, however, stated that shortage of personnel and the acceptance of the brand were some of the challenges of the new company.
“With the large and unexpected number of subscribers, we realised that we didn’t have enough mentors to coach those who wanted to do music. We also realised after the second month that some of the winners wanted financial support. It wasn’t about the music for them. With a great song and a great video, some of them still needed to pay bills. We also realised that people who were not interested in the talented aspect needed financial support for their businesses.
“This was why we introduced the lottery side of the business. So, every month, we have two sets of winners: first, winners for the lottery. Our subscribers play to win between N50, 000 and N1m monthly. We have had more entries and participants than ever before. The lottery side has been great other than the fact that some of the winners are scared. They think it is a scam. But we have been trying to convince them that it is a genuine venture. And we are trying to streamline the process such that people do not need to come to Lagos to collect their cheques.”
Also speaking, Head of Digital DKM Media Ltd, Harold Olamilokun, however, assured of the company’s commitment of tackling its challenges including adding new crop of partners.
Encouraged budding artistes to equal attention to the two aspects of showbiz, one of the CREAM mentors, Harrysong encouraged budding artistes to take advantage of the online platform.
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