The fund, raised for this sole purpose by the company was led by FundQuest Financial Services. According to a statement from the company:
“With the Artist Advance Fund, we believe we are providing artists and independent labels access to funding in the form of a never ending credit line, with the maximum advance mount and fee, based on the net share of income. With the fund, artists and labels will be able to choose what percentage of their monthly earning is devoted to the repayment of their advance, allowing them to structure the deal to favour them as much as possible – Toba Adeyanju, Head Business & Music Relations.”
Historically, artists have always been forced to look beyond the conventional means of financing to finance their music. With the artist advance fund, Ejoya hopes this practice will cease.
“With the artist advance fund, we will be able to offer artists just the right advance amount based on their previous streaming numbers. And unlike conventional deals, we do not require masters to be signed over before artists can access funding to take their careers to the next level. In line with everything we do, we believe this product will make our artists even more independent as they grow”
Speaking with Tomiwa Agbaje, co-founder of Elite View, an A&R and talent management company said this move by Ejoya is a step in the right direction towards creating a future where artists can pursue their independence.
“Increasingly, it is becoming more obvious that artists do not require to sign to labels before accomplishing their goals. Traditionally, labels have always been seen as the source of funding for artist projects but at a high cost, products like this will go a long way to balance the scales and hopefully shift more power towards the artist”
Ejoya’s Artist Advance fund launches on the 13th of August 2020 and artists can begin to request advances from the 20th of August on ejoya.co/advance