Ever wondered how to fuse music & tech to make magic?! Well, we figured it out! Keep reading!

In partnership with  Music + Tech Space – a community space for those who make magic from a fusion of music & tech, we launched the Music – Tech Innovation Challenge which was focused on identifying and developing innovative solutions that address four opportunity areas in the Nigerian music industry that would benefit from the application of technology.

 These areas are:

1. Legal advisory for artists 
2. Label Management
3. Artist Management
4. Event Management

To ensure that prospective applicants understood the purpose of the challenge and were able to submit applications that were  fit for purpose, we organized ideation workshops. These workshops were moderated by CcHUB and key music industry experts with vast experience in the 4 thematic areas of this challenge. 

The key experts for this challenge also doubled as judges and advisors for the winning teams.  They are: 

• Audu Maikori (Label Management): Audu is the Founder and President of Chocolate City Entertainment, for this challenge  selecting the startup that provided the best solutions to label management issues in the Nigerian Music scene.
• Uduak Oduok (Legal Advisory for artists) :  Ms. Uduak is the founder of Africa Music Law and an international fashion and entertainment lawyer.  She is a seasoned lawyer and recognized thought leader and was a great fit for this category.
• Godwin Tom (Artist Management): As CEO of The Godwin Tom Company and a talent manager with over 13 years of experience, he was the obvious choice for this category.
• Wale Davies (Event Management): Wale is theFounder of Fatherland Media and one half of the hip-hop duo ShowDemCamp. With vast experience organising Palmwine Festival and several other shows. Wale understands the nuances of event management and picked a solution that makes event management less challenging .
• Bez Idakula: Artiste & Founder of MusicTechSpace, Bez is an award winning musician, composer, producer and performer with over 12 years of experience in the music scene.

The 5 winning Startups/Teams will get technical support to build out their products as well as access to market/potential clients and possibility of direct funding from CcHUB. There were over 60 applications which were shortlisted to twelve (12) startups  working on innovative solutions addressing challenges in the music industry in Nigeria, and in some cases, solutions that were applicable to other countries on the continent. We had over 200 people who joined the virtual challenge to enjoy pitches from each shortlisted team.

Music Tech Incubation Programme

We had 5 amazing startups  emerge from the challenge and advance to the 3 month incubation support phase where they will enjoy support focused on helping them achieve proof of concept and/or distribution for their solutions.

The incubation support from CcHUB focuses on:

• Product – Leveraging our engineering and design teams, we worked with the selected winners to build and fine-tune technical aspects of their solutions as needed. 
• Distribution – To ensure that the solutions are deployed and tested in real-world settings, our 4 industry experts acted as the first set of users for their corresponding solutions. In addition, we made introductions to other organizations that could potentially benefit from specific solutions within the programme.
• Funding – To ensure that the startups attract funding for their solutions, we designed investment readiness sessions and proper valuation for those who needed these sessions and introduced them to investors.

The emerging teams that  were a part of this programme were:

• Royalti.io

A solution that provides a holistic view and analysis of royalty reports for labels, artist managers, and artists. Their solution helps record labels and artist managers to combine royalty data from different sources and provide transparent and accurate reporting to their artists and other contributing parties using pre-agreed splits.

• Tix.africa

Tix.Africa is a self-service platform for event creators. Users can create events to sell tickets, manage admissions at the event, and collect payments from guests. The solution helps event creators avoid long queues, failed transactions, paper ticketing, and other event issues.

• The Contract Aid

This is a  platform where artists and labels have access to vetted legal aid to help with contract drafting and review. They provide the artist with vetted lawyers to help with contracts at an affordable rate. 

• Music Hangout

A music streaming platform that gives access to millions of songs and other content from local indigenous artists. They are providing a platform for upcoming artists to showcase their songs and creativity. 

• Music Learning Cap

A platform that offers in-depth courses in Music Business and Management. The solution is poised to offer information to anyone who would love to venture into the Music Business. 

The incubation programme was able to help the startups fine tune their solutions to be market ready. Working with the industry experts and our product and design team, we provided the teams with valuable insights and support around  product design and business development where needed. . Unfortunately, due to team and personal issues, TheContract Aid, Music Learning Cap and Music Hangout had to leave the programme.

Success stories

In the 3-month duration of the programme Chinedum Okerengwo of Royalti.io was able to refine his product, employ tech 3 staff to modify the product and got the amazing opportunity to work with Audu Maikori and the Chocolate City Team. 

Folayemi Agusto of Tix.africa was able to launch the  subscription service  that makes events booking and registrations easy for her customers. Godwin Tom and Wale Davis of Showdemcamp both loved the  solution and will be using Tix for their upcoming events. 

How was the experience for the companies?  The founders got to share about their experience and how they benefited from the programme in the video below:

Tix

Royalti.io

From our experience implementing this programme, it is clear that there are opportunities for the music industry to leverage technology to solve existing challenges, as well as a need for ongoing engagement between both ecosystems. On one end, it will expose the music/entertainment industry to technological solutions being built within the ecosystem, and on the other end, it will enable innovators within the tech ecosystem to understand the nuances around certain challenges faced in the music industry. It was a privilege to work with the founders to build and connect relevant technology solutions to the music industry. 

Special thanks to  our partners – Music & Tech Space and Paga – for their support on this project, as well as, all our industry experts who took time out of their very busy schedules to support the startups individually.