Introducing Artwork - Practical business tips for African creators

We're excited to announce Artwork, the video show about the business side of being a creator in Africa 🎉

My name is Toba, Media Associate at Paystack and also host of Artwork!

Last year, Paystack launched a suite of new Commerce tools to help African creators and SMEs bring ideas to market, beautifully. As we spoke with our community, we realised that while there are lots of resources about the craft side of creative work, there are fewer resources to help creators become more business savvy.

Whether it's understanding your IP rights or the factors to consider before setting and increasing your rates, there are very few resources targeted at helping African creators thrive commercially.

At Paystack, we have the opportunity to connect with and learn from the most ambitious teams across Africa. This includes creators who care about their craft and are keenly aware of the need to build out the business side of their creative practice. Artwork lets us share everything we're learning with you.

You won't find this gist in any textbook

In this first season of Artwork, we'll be speaking with creators from Nigeria and Ghana who work across several creative fields, including music, writing, brand design, and photography. They share what has worked for them across topics like marketing, pricing, client communications, building community, and more.

Each 10-minute episode is packed with takeaways that you can immediately begin to apply in your creative practice.

Live conversations after each episode

Each episode is just the beginning of the conversation. A week after each episode is published, you can look forward to a live, hour-long Twitter Spaces conversation on the Paystack Twitter account where you can learn more from our guests, and get answers to all your questions.

Watch the first episode!

The first episode of Artwork focuses on music distribution and rights management.

Episode one: Distribution and IP rights management — Ria Boss

Rights management is one of those things you would rather not think about. It can seem complex and confusing, but it's an important way to reach new audiences and make sure you're fairly compensated for the use of your music. This is why Ria Boss wants every musician and songwriter to pay attention to it.

Ria Boss is a Ghanaian singer, songwriter, and producer whose song, "Intro" off her EP Bornday, was recently featured on Michaela Coel's hit HBO TV show, I May Destroy You. After releasing 11 EPs in 11 weeks in 2018, it's no wonder that Ria has a nuanced understanding of why rights management and music distribution matter.

In this episode of Artwork, she breaks down everything from how to negotiate the use of your music for a major TV show, to how to use tools like ASCAP, Tunecore, and Spotify for Artists to track and distribute your music.

Are there topics you'd like to learn about? Or someone you'd like to learn from?

Are there questions you want answered about the business side of being a creator in Africa? Is there an African creator you admire and would like to hear from? Please go ahead and let me know at [email protected]!

Find out as soon as there's a new episode of Artwork

You can catch the latest episode every other Wednesday at 11 am (WAT) on paystack.com/youtube. Kindly subscribe to get notifications for new episodes. See you on the show!