“For us at Now Muzik, we do not have the template for monetizing the legacies of our departed heroes, particularly in the areas of entertainment. A lot of work has been done with Fela. I am not sure I can point to any Nigerian management company or label that can take credit for what has been achieved with the Fela legacy for the Fela estate. I think much of that progress started with his UK and USA managements and representatives. I have worked in this space for over two decades with great names, both transited and living; from Daniel Wilson to Eleesha. I worked with Tony Harmony in a management capacity, but we lost him a couple of years ago. Just last year, we lost Sir Victor Owaifo.
Establishing a sustainable model is what we are striving to build. I have told myself and my colleagues that if we cannot achieve this with Sound Sultan, it will be difficult to achieve it with anybody else due to the amount of goodwill Sound Sultan has. Every year, you hear the Michael Jackson estate declare a significant amount of earnings in dollars, and the same goes for the 2pac estate and the Bob Marley estate. When people work and create, their creations generate funds for their estate for life. Here, once a talent is unable to attend events, release records, or perform, it appears that the door just shuts forever. So, we have taken up the challenge to try to get it right with Sound Sultan and to establish a model that other people can follow and replicate.
Therefore, if we can successfully design and launch a line of merchandise in Sound Sultan’s name, his family’s earnings for instance can go from N500,000 a year to N500,000,000 a year in ten years. If we can put Sir Victor Owaifo’s name on some kind of artwork or create a virtual reality show of the works of Hubert Ogunde, then we can generate money, and their families would not have to rely solely on the benevolence of friends and colleagues. It is okay to want to send gifts to the families of the departed, but that is not sustainable. If they have earnings from music royalties, merchandise, etc., that is what we aspire to achieve, and we cannot do this on our own.
So, we put out music – fantastic, world-class music – so that people can stream it and the family can earn money. What we are creating at Now Muzik for the Sound Sultan Eternal (SSE) brand is a long-term business solution for income generation. We have already received a lot of support, but we need a whole lot more. Individuals like Baba Keke and Ayo Animashaun have helped with their media platforms to advertise our products and put our music on heavy rotation. However, we want and need a lot more.
This is 2023, the era of social media, where one post from Darey Art Alade can probably reach more people and have a greater impact than 10 slots on 5 radio stations put together at the same time. We want to plead with you to key into our vision so we can achieve reasonable success with Sound Sultan. Going forward, we can replicate that template for every one of our departed icons, from Da Grin to Sir Victor Owaifo, and even the next person in line because the only thing you are guaranteed after you are born is that you are going to die. Thank you very much”
Olusesan Oladapo
For: Now Muzik/SSE