Jul 17, 20213 min read

Make Music Day KE Music Workshop

Updated: Jul 21, 2021

Make Music Day Kenya is a campaign set to celebrate music art and performances in building the resilience in upcoming artists towards a sustainable generation. YOWPSUD and Just Poetic, together with Taylor Torch came up with the concept of 'sensitization' of upcoming young artists in building their resilience and capacity post Covid 19.

This Sensitization Music Forum aims to sensitize artists on monetizing audio and visual content for resilience and sustainability of the coastal region artists. The main focus of the forum is to learn how best artists can utilize more time in content creation and dissemination of the content and making a living in the process.

The workshop brought about 6 artists and 2 film makers. There has been a sensitization gap in the coastal music industry that and artists and producers that were present in the meeting attested to to that fact. In our previous discussions with artists and creatives, we realized that there was a need to kick start the sensitization forum for artists.

Make Music Day KE is an initiative that started up on June 21st 2021 during World Music Day. The inspiration behind the idea came from the urge to create musical content to make the world a better place. The idea is a duplicate of Make Music Day UK, Chicago, New York etc. Taylor Torch an artist from Kenya saw the need of having the same idea in Kenya and he went ahead and claim spot it. With Support from YOWPSUD, the idea was actualized and implemented with the first Musical sensitization workshop at the Kenyan Coast.

One of the sessions during the workshop was mapping out of the top 10 distribution websites that Kenyan artist use in distribution of their musical content. The following were the stated music distribution sites that are used frequently in Kenya; United Masters, Tunecore, Distrokid, Cd Run, CD Baby, Sepulchral Silence, Onerpm, Routenote, Octiive and Record Union. Artists shared their experience on different platforms and recommended that if we can have representatives from different distribution sites available in these trainings to help them address the challenges they go through while using the platforms. Onerpm stood out in the sessions and more sensitization on the platform is needed since it is very reliable and effective as attested to some artists who have had a good experience on the platform.

Lisa Russell, MPH an Emmy-winning filmmaker and a Founder of Create2030 whose work lies at the intersection of arts, social justice and global development came through to give a session on aligning musical content with the Sustainable Development Goals in order to create opportunity linkages to the artists on the cooperate world.

Lisa's session was an eye opening plus with the feedback and requests for new incoming artists requesting for sensitization and open forums for them to discuss on issues that matter the most to them that is "music." YOWPSUD together Just and Poetic, a Kenyan based music platform and also a marketplace for buying and selling beats, are yet to enroll on their second episode of the #MakeMusicDayKE workshop.

There was also a session Music Publishing during the workshop. The session facilitated by Mandy Aubry from Songtrust

Mandy Aubry is Director of Business Development for EMEA and APAC at Songtrust, the world's largest technology solution for global music publishing royalty collection and administration.

She is based in the Netherlands and leads Songtrust’s expansion across EMEA and APAC. Leveraging her unique talent for demystifying the complexities surrounding music publishing, and committed to its democratization, Aubry’s mission is to provide music creators in established and emerging music markets alike with global music publishing administration and collection infrastructure.

A brief presentation about songtrust and its mandate was presented and with the partnership of Just n Poetic and Songtrust, the first 100 artists are yet to be empowered to be able to collect their royalties for free through Just n Poetic's songtrust business account without charges but minus 15% fee. Watch the video below and get more understanding about Songtrust Music Publishing and administration.

The last session was on the importance of a saving plan precisely for Artists. With the history over the decades of Kenyan artist being not able to manage their funds and most of them ending up being broke, YOWPSUD realized that there has been a gap in sensitization of artists as far as Goal Setting and Saving plan is concerned. The organization brought on board representatives of ICEA Lions Group, a Kenyan based insurance company, one of East Africa's largest and most innovative insurers and financial services companies.

The session was facilitated by 2 Financial advisors Damaris Kaluki and Faith Mbogo. The emphasis was on a saving plan for artists in order to secure their future dreams and making them a reality by starting saving at the current moment.

Special thanks to Director Theodore Pendagrass of BillGadgets Productions and Lisa Russell film for documenting the Make Music Day KE workshop Episode 1.