Pay Creatives

One of the most difficult careers you can choose as a Kenyan is choosing to be a creative. For the longest time ever society at least in Kenya has viewed being a creative as being lesser than. We can only compare being a creative to being a football player in Kenya. Many children in Kenya grow up wanting to be a football player and supporting their favorite English premiere league team hoping to one day get to that level. For many this is a dream but very few Kenyan football players get to play at the highest level of football in the world. Even worse, for many Kenyan football players playing in Kenya, the life is not a glamourous as the dream they had as a child wanting to play football.

I remember as a child telling my grandfather that I make music and would one day like to be a musician and him laughing at me. My grandfather (God rest his soul in eternal peace) was a rich man at least in the village he was from he was. But from his perspective and 70+ years on this earth had never seen a rich musician from Kenya so from his assumption and worldview he believed that being a musician or creative was not a career to have but simply a hobby or way to pass time. This memory really stuck with me and ended up doing two things. The first thing it did was discourage me from wanting to be a musician and the second thing that it did was motivate me to be a musician because I wanted to prove him wrong and show him that this music thing that he laughs about can not only make you successful but also rich.

            I have been in the music industry since 2009 but recorded my first ever song in 2007. In the time that I have been in the Kenyan music industry, there are very few creatives that I can say have made millions from music. Despite saying that, It is very important that we state that the Kenyan music and entertainment industry has a lot of money, the money just doesn’t seem to funnel through to the creatives but gets eaten by the middle men and fat cats at the top.

            Everyone has a cousin, uncle, aunty or relative who is a creative. Do you ever wonder what they eat or how they make ends meet? Until you yourself are a creative or know someone who is a creative, it is very difficult to know what creatives go through just to create and make ends meet. Without a doubt, one of the biggest things that Kenyan creatives need is to learn about money management. Considering that a creatives income is not consistent, it is important that Kenyan creatives learn to manage money and plan for the future.

            In the next few months, we, as Radio 254, are going to be launching a new product that seeks to Pay Creatives. The goal is to ensure that creatives are doing their job which is to create and after that partner with us to help them earn revenue from the creative works that they create.  We, as Radio 254 are committed to leaving things better than we found them and this is one of the ways we plan on doing so. Stay Tuned for PlayKE™ a platform built to improve the lives of Kenyan creatives and ensure that they get the most value and revenue from their work. It’s time we start to Pay Kenyan Creatives.