Musician and entrepreneur Siya “Slikour” Metane has revealed plans to launch a business platform to centralise finances of musicians and other creatives.
He says the platform will help artists place their money from their engagements, events and royalties in one place.
Slikour was speaking to the Sunday World at the conclusion of the Momentum fifth annual Science of Success festival in Bryanston, Johannesburg, on Thursday. He said the new financial tool will help creatives to trace their monies until they cash them.
The inspiration for the platform stems from Slikour’s own bad experience with finances and observing the struggles of other artists.
“Creatives are not money smart immediately. How would you know about something [which never existed in your earlier life] if you are not made aware of it?
“Apart from knowing about their own money, artists need to know the worth of the industry they work in. They must know their worth, which means they will know how to charge for shows and other activities,” Slikour said.
The Momentum Science of Success festival sought to create space to share ideas to improve income for individuals. Topics on starting a side hustle are relevant to business lives of creatives. That explains Slikour’s presence at the festival artists which featured notable speakers. These included entrepreneur Sibu Mabena, radio personality T-bo Touch and British entrepreneur and famed podcaster Steven Bartlett.
The objectives of the finance platform Slikour is working on for artists are as follows:
- How to generate money through art and music
- An artist being an entrepreneur who pays people to help them achieve their vision vs being just a creative.
- Understanding the lingo: royalties, IP, trademark, etc.
The festival is the flagship event for Momentum’s #SuccessIsAScience campaign, which seeks to share practical tools, tips, and knowledge to empower consumers to make the right financial decisions.
The #SuccessIsACampaign also coincided with the release of the annual Momentum UNISA Household Financial Wellness Index. The index measures the financial health of households and some of the trends and shifts for small, medium, and micro enterprises (SMMEs) as well as those pursuing side hustles.
The biggest theme emanating from the research is that diversifying income streams is important to most households right now. The prolific growth of side hustles is also confirmed with the research showing that about 10% of employed people currently have a side hustle, while 60% indicated they wanted to start one in the next year.
