Sauti Sol: From band to group of companies

Sauti Sol members take a selfie through the unveiling of the band because the official model ambassadors for Infinix Kenya on June 2, 2021, at Social Home. PHOTO | FRANCIS NDERITU | NMG

Soccer strikers are most of the time the celebs of the present for a very good motive. They get quite a lot of consideration for his or her distinctive expertise, efficiency and game-changing moments. And they need to.

However who would they be with out the goalkeepers?

A rarely glorified place, their constant efficiency in help of the workforce makes the distinction between a very good season and a mediocre one.

Delicate-spoken Moriasi Omambia, a lover of basketball, would go for a very good goalkeeper if he had been to be on a soccer pitch.

However in his early years, he most well-liked basketball. In 2000, together with his household having relocated again house from Windhoek, Namibia settling in Rongai, Mr Omambia was on a basketball courtroom.

“On this courtroom, there was at all times this tall skinny talkative boy. I got here to know him as Bien (Aime Baraza). We grew to become pals due to the sport. In his free time on the courtroom, he and Chiwawa (legendary rapper) used to put in writing music. We began having these conversations and Bien instructed me he wished to be knowledgeable musician and I instructed him I wished to enter leisure legislation and that’s how we linked,” Moriasi says.

Bien Aime-Baraza of Sauti Sol band performs throughout Sol Fest live performance at Uhuru Gardens, Nairobi on November 4, 2023.

Fourteen years down, the low-keyed barrister has been taking part in on an entire completely different workforce that noticed his contributions not too long ago feted when he was named a finalist of the Enterprise Day by day High 40 Underneath 40 Males 2023.

The 37-year-old has been instrumental in shaping the Sauti Sol franchise, a Sol Group of Corporations encompassing Sauti Sol Leisure, Sol Era Data, Sol Fest and Sol Era Music Publishing & Distribution. His enterprise card reads Head of Enterprise Affairs – Sauti Sol Group.

Learn: Sauti Sol agency eyes 300 artists with expertise programme

Over the decade-plus years, because the Sauti Sol franchise grew and the vocalists grew into celebrities, Mr Omambia continues to withstand the attract of coming into the limelight.

Turning concepts into enterprise

“By the way in which, that is my first media interview in 14 years, I like taking part in within the background. On this enterprise I’m okay with being behind the scenes, let the celebs be the celebs and the leaders be the leaders. The extra you’re unknown the higher it’s so that you can negotiate and discharge your mandate which in my case is executing these ‘guys’ (Sauti Sol) concepts. They’re the visionaries, mine is to assist them perceive what the enterprise is by structuring these concepts,” Mr Omambia tells the Enterprise Day by day.

Mr Omambia is modest, saying Sauti Sol’s success has taken workforce work.  “All of us work collectively for the frequent purpose which is to do higher and be completely different,” he says.

However even then, a facet of contribution he takes credit score for, is what he describes as fee standardisation within the trade.

“I believe, first, my contribution can be taking the strain of the enterprise from the boys or guys as we name them and enabling them to focus on creativity and writing soundtracks to folks’s lives. Second is contributing to the inventive economic system standardisation in the case of contracting the rights and Mental Property (IP) of artistes, and lastly, placing worth to artwork” says the Leisure and IP lawyer.

He explains that there wasn’t a lot worth after they began in 2009, “till once we began standardising sure issues, placing sure authorized necessities in the case of coping with artwork.”

Savara Mudigi of Sauti Sol band performs throughout Sol Fest live performance at Uhuru Gardens, Nairobi on November 4, 2023.

Studying from well-developed markets, particularly the West, standardising the market was the queen piece on the chess board that Mr Omambia says they needed to push, to start out producing significant revenue from artwork.

“For a really very long time, there was a notion that the music/inventive trade was haphazard. There are picture, digital, and music rights and all these have completely different values. That’s what we did, bringing one of the best follow house and making it an ordinary. Individuals needed to perceive that artwork has worth however not only one unitary worth however a number of models introduced collectively,” he explains.

Learn: Ought to Raila pay Sauti Sol? Consultants weigh in

Enterprise construction

A day within the workplace for Mr Omambia begins by catching up with the completely different workforce leaders of the companies throughout the group for briefs and debriefs. Afterward, he meets manufacturers or potential companions and examines contracts that have to be attended to.

“Our construction of operations is that we’ve Crispin Obala heading the Music and Publishing enterprise, William Nanjero is workforce chief Sol Era after which we’ve Zaida DSuleiman and Kavutha Asio dealing with the Sol Fest franchise,” he explains.

Because the lead counsel for the Sauti Sol Group, Mr Omambia additionally has a workforce of his personal consisting of two attorneys.

“For the authorized workforce we’ve myself, Emmy Osoro and Sally Chui, two good younger women we received from Strathmore by our internship partnership with the college,” he says.

Willis Chimano of Sauti Sol band performs throughout Sol Fest live performance at Uhuru Gardens, Nairobi on November 4, 2023.

With the ‘boys’ now taking an indefinite sabbatical, the query {that a} majority have been looking for solutions to, if social media reactions are something to go by, is, what occurs subsequent? Does indefinite suggest Sauti Sol is completed for good?

 “Each Sauti Sol enterprise will proceed. Sauti Sol the band may not be there however Sauti Sol the model(s) can be,” Mr Omambia says.

Learn: Sauti Sol, Common Music ink recording deal

Memorable Sh80m ultimate present

Bien Aime Baraza, Savara Mudigi, Polycarp Otieno and Wills Chimano, buddies since their heydays in Higher Hill Secondary Faculty exited the stage as a gaggle with a memorable, emotional electrical present, the Sol Fest staged on November 4, 2023 at Uhuru Grounds, Nairobi.

The three-hour sold-out farewell live performance attracted 15,000 attendees regardless of the tickets costing Sh20,000 for the VIP, Sh6,500 for the second tier ticketing and Sh2,500 for the third tier.

Sauti Sol guitarist Polycarp Otieno performs throughout Sol Fest live performance at Uhuru Gardens, Nairobi on November 4, 2023.

To make it a memorable expertise, Mr Omambia says, the manufacturing of the live performance value Sh80 million.

“Sol Fest is a journey of steady enchancment. The thought was conceived in 2015 when the boys felt it was time to have our personal occasion ecosystem which then grew to become The Stay and Die in Africa tour. When the album got here out we went round seven cities in Nairobi with two branded buses. We then executed the plan with the primary Sol Fest taking place in 2021,  one other  in 2022 and the newest final 12 months.”

He explains the genesis of the Sol Fest sustaining extra editions are but to come back even with Sauti Sol out of the image.

Preparation for final 12 months’s version started in early March with a complete doc of what went improper in 2021 and 2022 because the blueprint.

“Guys like DJ Unique gave us an extended record of issues he thought we may  do higher. With the doc ,we sat down and thought of who within the trade has the experience and the know-how to place up a very good occasion expertise and the one names that got here up had been Saida Suleiman and Kavutha Asio. They’ve been within the trade for 30 years individually.”

What subsequent for Sauti Sol?

Mr Omambia notes will probably be an fascinating section for him when the truth of the modifications [boy’s indefinite hiatus] begins to kick in.

“For example, we’ve Sauti Sol YouTube channel with over a million subscribers and we’re already considering what we’re going to do with it so far as new content material is worried. We’ve got 1.4 million on Fb, 1.1 million on Twitter, and a pair of.3 million on Instagram. So what are the concepts round these numbers that can allow us to proceed producing revenue as a result of the purpose is to maintain constructing wealth,” he says.

However the clearest indication already manifesting, Mr Omambia says is that the Sol Group can have new manufacturers to construct its personal.

“With the boys, every taking over a person path, I believe we can have 4 extra new contributors to the enterprise, and we’ve extra manufacturers to construct individually as a enterprise. It’s a really fascinating section to be in in the intervening time and I can solely wait to see the way it pans out,” he provides.

The sport plan

For Mr Omambia and the boys, the sport plan is to go away an property that can outlast their era, their kids’s era and extra to come back.

“How lengthy has Michael Jackson been useless and his household continues to be residing off the wealth that his property continues to generate? He’s the highest-grossing useless celeb. That’s the mindset we embody at Sauti Sol Group. Even with the hiatus, the boys are okay. They’ve invested just about in a number of issues and we are going to proceed to construct new methods of making wealth.”

In response to Forbes, the highest-paid useless celeb in 2023 is Michael Jackson rating first with $115 million in earnings adopted by his late father-in-law Elvis Presley at place two with an incomes of $100 million. Bob Marley ranks sixth with an incomes of $16 million.

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