Nice & pleasant discovery in our inbox yesterday when the guys @ Africa Unsigned dropped us a line to kindly inform us about their crowdfunding web project: a platform to help African artists record & promote their music…
We nearly discover a new crowdfunding platform each day (we use them ourselves) and despite all the recent hype, very few platforms will truly make it in the coming years (maybe myspace should rethink about their strategy….). Some like Kiva, IndieGoGo or Kickstarter have proven to be amazing vehicles for funding creative projects (remember all the bzzz that surrounded diaspora?).
Others like AfricaUnsigned offer & serve a very specific purpose: help African music go global…. And African music deserves some more attention than the mere 3-4 reviews / year we read . Even us, despite dedicating a big % of our time & space to review new artists & albums we’ve barely ever mentioned any African artist. Why? Pure ignorance.
That’s were A.Unsigned (a project initially started by Pim Betist & Daan Determeijer) comes as a handy option not only for helping the African artists, but also for helping ourselves by discovering sounds we’re not accustomed to.
For now only a selection of artists from a few African countries including Kenya, Senegal, Mali, Zimbabwe and South Africa were hand picked by a music panel consisting of music experts like Baaba Maal, Tony Allen, and Damon Albarn (Gorillaz, Blur).
How it works…
Music fans from all over the world can listen to the selection of artists, pick their favorite(s) and chip in a minimum of $1 dollar to the recording of a professional EP. The music is then distributed to the fans who backed the artist and sold on all major online stores (incl. Amazon & iTunes). All the generated net income from music sales is shared equally between the artists and the music fans who supported the artist.
Oh we nearly forget! They’ve launched a competition with TEDx Amsterdam “Three times a Lady”, where 3 female artists from Kenya (Muthoni, Neema and Liz Ogumbo) are competing for our funds… in order to get a return ticket and a chance to perform at TEDx Amsterdam on November 30 in Stadsschouwburg.
Our favorite? Shouldn’t say… but we can tell you where to listen to them & let you decide on your own….
