Company
WAVVI
WAVVI, as described on the show by Yaa Akoto Kieck and Tom Russell.
Episodes (1)
Yaa Akoto Kieck and Tom Russell on WAVVI, AFROSON1C X, and Moon Entertainment Systems, built so West African artists can distribute music and play live.
Questions these episodes answer
How does WAVVI fit the way artists in West Africa get paid and online?
Tom Russell says WAVVI is built for the African market, with payment gateways that include mobile money, teaching inside the product, and a platform that uses little data because data is expensive. Yaa Akoto Kieck adds that most people do not have credit cards or $20 a month, so the service has to be cheaper.
From: Connecting African Artists to the Global Music Business
Can an artist release music on WAVVI without downloading an app?
Tom Russell says the version they are about to launch removes that step. An artist can run the DIY distribution process from a WhatsApp conversation: upload the file, upload the metadata, and ask when the release should go out.
From: Connecting African Artists to the Global Music Business
Why do they treat music-business education as part of the product?
Tom Russell says education is one of the biggest limits on artists in West Africa, and that the companies only become commercially valuable if people understand the business. If they do not understand it, they will not use the products. The more they know, the more they use them.
From: Connecting African Artists to the Global Music Business
What size of venue does live music in Ghana need?
Tom Russell says Ghana needs rooms of about 300 to 500 capacity, so artists can play often and earn from a show, which he calls a crucial part of an artist's journey. Through December, the biggest artists play their own headline shows for crowds from five thousand to twenty-five thousand.
From: Connecting African Artists to the Global Music Business
What do they expect the West African music industry to look like in five years?
Tom Russell expects AI to let people who could not afford a studio or a mixing engineer make music, and to create a huge number of sound creators who still need industry infrastructure. Yaa Akoto Kieck expects a countercurrent of handmade music and a first mega African indie superstar or band.
From: Connecting African Artists to the Global Music Business