How Celebs Make Money

By Stevens Muendo and Rose Kwamboka

Looking back ten years ago, showbiz lovers can recall how the entertainment industry boomed with the new town-to-town club concerts, driven by a new vibrant breed of artistes like Nameless, Wahu, Deux Vultures, Kleptomaniax, Longombas, Mr Googz, Vinnie Banton and the late E-Sir.

These young chaps were on fire. With them came a new wave of music producers and deejays, who blew into radio and TV waves. The growing number of FM stations brought with it new music programmes in almost every platform available.

Mega hits like Mos Mos, Boomba Train, Hamunitishi, Leo ni Leo, Maisha, Mona Lisa, Kinyaunyau, Kibow Wow, Unbwogable and Ting Badi Malo, just to mention a few, become household anthems.

The newcomers sounded their strong entry into the music industry and commanded respect in clubs as well as media platforms that even the birth of yours truly, the Pulse magazine, became conceivable. It was a new lifestyle supported by innovative ideas and a flashy lifestyle with the likes of Mash Auto and LimosRUs joining the fold.

The showbiz windfall paid dividends as the new celebrities crisscrossed the country, camping in every little town and making huge cash in every little club as their demand spread like wild bush fire.

It was not so of their rather whack, grainy videos or the lyrical content of their tracks, but rather a euphoric support by a new generation eager to stamp a new lifestyle.

During the shows, fans paid for club gate charges. The singers sold their singles and albums on tapes and CDs. The fans supported them by buying their merchandise like the popular Ogopa E-Sir T-shirt.  Calif and Ogopa branded their artistes and everyone wanted to get their T-shirts too. They made serious cash and upgraded their lives; others even invested in cars and rental houses. Here, an industry was sprouting. The Pulse generation was born.

Ten years on, the game has changed and those who are still trying the old ways are quickly finding themselves struggling by the wayside as new technology replaces the old with yet another breed of success-obsessed freshmen threatening the status quo.

Artistes are no longer launching their songs on radio or TV. They are doing so on YouTube where thousands of their social media-connected fans are.

The big shows are no longer in clubs, but rather in corporate and social events. Ringtones and callback tunes are a top cash cow for artistes just as are official YouTube hits. Royalties collected from copyrighted music from the smallest kiosk in town to five-star hotels, commuter vehicles to water and air vessels and every other public place; name it, are yielding in millions for artistes with the well-positioned laughing all the way to the bank, even for a single hit song. It is business unusual! It is no shock that on Saturday, the Music Copyright Society of Kenya in collaboration with Startimes launched a new TV channel, targeting only local artistes and content.

In a nutshell, the local entertainment industry has transformed tremendously in the last decade that many have had to go back to the drawing board to keep abreast with the changing times.

Where is the big showbiz money?

Is it just about new trends or simply pressure created by a new generation of showbiz lovers and, of course, dictated by global lifestyle traits?

With all these lingering questions in mind, the emergence of new entertainment spheres in the local industry such as deejaying, fashion designing and modelling, comedy, socially-themed bimonthly family shows — and the like — seem to have tilted the showbiz scale, causing a spill and a refocus fom the hitherto, then, thin and rather inward-looking entertainment industry.

The base simply shifted. One just needs to know were the big money is — and tap into it.

Here are the seven geese that seem to be laying the golden eggs:

MCSK and PRiSk

As it has been, the more a song gets airplay, the more the artiste gets paid by the Music Copyright Society of Kenya (MCSK). This privilege is, however, only enjoyed by registered members. So efficient is the system that they collect money even from PSVs. The fact that it is managed by the artistes themselves ensures they look out for their own interests. While MCSK has been one of the greatest artistes’ cash venture lately, the Performers Rights Society of Kenya (PRiSK) is now proving to be another major front through which artistes can claim good returns from their performances. As long as one has a hit song, a musician can make millions from the comfort of their living room with big cash coming through royalties’ collection by the two organisations. A month ago, artistes were paid up to Sh600,000 (for a single group) in three-months royalties while others got similar impressive amounts.  Currently, MCSK boasts of managing more than 6,000 artistes.

It is no wonder that even artistes who had given up the game are now trooping back to studio in an effort to take advantage of the new windfall. In fact, guys are already doing remixes of their old hits as they prove to be such gold mines. 

Corporate gigs and endorsements

A leading gospel artiste was paid Sh5 million to endorse a leading telecommunication service provider for a year. This year, a number of other local artistes are being paid to the tune of Sh3 million each, to do nationwide corporate concerts by another telecommunication service provider. Ironically, the leading artiste is also part of this group.

With corporates now apportioning huge budgets to music and dancing talent mega-concerts, it is no secret that the big showbiz cash is in corporates. From Safaricom to Airtel, to Orange leading telephone service providers are now paying artistes handsomely to endorse their products and also to incorporate them in different brand visibility projects.

One simply has to sport a good public image and a huge fan-base, release a number of hit singles and swim in the big corporate cash. The kind of money our artistes are making through this is far way bigger than what anyone can make through club gigs.

Brand ambassadors

Yvonne Chaka Chaka is to Lifebouy, what Amani is to Airtel, Wahu to Rexona or Johnson Mwakazi to Pan African Insurance. Being a brand ambassador gets one associated with a particular product and as a result, the need to own it and sell it. With such a heavy responsibility bestowed on an individual, the rewards are just as satisfying.

Ask Wahu, and she will tell you that as a brand ambassador for Unilever and in specific to do the Rexona advert, which aired around Africa, she bagged some good six-figure cash.

Mobile apps

With apps like Skiza tunes, every song downloaded on a subscriber’s phone means cash for the artiste. The proceeds are shared with a certain percentage going to the service provider and the bigger percentage to the artiste. All this happens with the advertising costs being footed by the provider. The more the subscribers sign up to Skiza tunes and the longer they stay with them, the broader the artiste smiles, all the way to the bank.

Online advertising

With the world now becoming a small village, artistes are now using online platforms to market themselves and their work. It the click of a baton for example, one can access Nonini’s music and other merchandise and purchase the same online regardless what part of the world they are at. Fashion bloggers are also making a big kill through online sales. At the same time, due to their popularity, major corporates and brands are now negotiating with celebrities to use their Facebook and Twitter pages to hype their products and campaigns for good money. 

Social and themed events

Think Blankets and Wine, The Circle, Mingle and the like. While such social events are great entertaining ventures, their proprietors, some who happen to be artistes, cash in big time. From gate tickets to corporate sponsorship, these events are a cash cow that was awaiting exploitation. They also create an avenue for other artistes to not only showcase their talent, but also earn some cash and network while at it. Some of those events now run like artistes moneymaking cartels (and it’s a good thing). The events have attracted great interest from sponsors and partners. They are far much lucrative than those night gigs we used to know back in the day.

Self branding and Collabos

Recently in an interview with Pulse, Anto Neosoul confessed to have pocketed Sh250, 000 for the Sari Sari collabo with DK Kwenye beat. One will have to part with at least Sh400,000 for DNA to even consider a collabo with them. However, Khaligraph, being new to the music industry, charges a mere Sh20,000. Rabbit, on the other hand, charges between Sh50,000 and Sh80,000 to established artistes, preferring not to charge upcoming ones. In a nutshell, if an artiste feels very talented, collabo fees would be their best bet. Celebs are brands; money making brands.