Turning rhyme in to real riches

Published Dec 1, 2017

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Celebrities can now be part of a digital revolution called Beam Digital, led by Kiernan Forbes, to own and make money out of their celebrity. On Thursday, the hip-hop recording artist Forbes – famously known as AKA – launched Beam Digital, with his business partners Micore and Celebrity Services Africa. 

Beam Digital is set to revolutionise the way in which artists and their fans engage through the application of innovative mobile technologies.

In an interview with The Star, Forbes said: “Beam Digital is a company that I started with some other experts from around the world from telecoms, cellular, network providers, mobile device manufacturers and retailers to start basically offering services. It is what people would normally call an agency. “The digital revolution is driving technological change at a pace that has never been seen before, and followers are expecting more from the artists they support. It has been a dream of mine to be able to empower my fellow artists by connecting them more significantly with their fans through innovative tech and digital solutions. I’ve been looking for the next big thing and I believe this is it,” he said. 

The businessman said Beam Digital was a platform for other celebrities and personalities to come on board and become owners of their brands. According to Forbes, the digital company will give an opportunity for celebrities to be aware of the analytics of who follows them, where their fans are from and how much of a following they really have. 

Micore Holdings said the partnership was significant because it was a joint venture. 

"Micore Holdings has various innovative solutions and products that would be used as part of the joint venture to empower that artist and reward the followers."

They said the platform was different to others because of the way they had packaged theirs. 

"The way we have packaged the technologies brings about the innovation and are more beneficial to the artists-creating long tern wealth for them."

Through this platform celebrities will be rewarded financially in terms of revenue share arrangements taht would be agreed upon based on their preferences or products that they would like to be part of. 

"We would like to democratise the power of some of the large digital superpowers and empower the artist and reward the followers for the ardent support"

This digital agency is expected to provide a feature-loaded smartphone, introducing celebrity-branded devices to fans who will receive exclusive content and an extensive range of value-added offerings. There’s also an innovative messaging phase called Tawk2Me that allows artists to connect with their followers across both smart and feature phones. Other products and services, including reward programmes, insurance, healthcare, retail and sports betting will be made available. 

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