By: Oluwakemi Olamikanra – Writer, Yellow Card
In the past year, the sports industry has ridden the crypto wave without a summit in sight. From ambassador and sponsorship deals with athletes to sports clubs allowing fans to pay for game tickets with crypto, the sports sector seems to have adapted to crypto pretty quickly.
In addition, the gaming industry, media, and art industries are also joining this new wave as we gradually but surely enter into a new age of financial freedom.
According to an article by Ahmed Shabana, founder of Parkpine Capital, an early-stage venture capital fund – the entertainment industry is poised to reinvent its business functions and facilitate secure, transparent, and traceable transactions with crypto.
Crypto is progressively becoming a preferred option for the entertainment sector at large and, more specifically, for the music industry.
Collaborations between crypto and the music industry, which were at first unprecedented, have advanced in recent times as more artists and record labels join the crypto train. A few notable examples are Grammy Award-winning Nigerian artiste Burna Boy and his partnership with Chipper Cash, and prolific South African rapper; Casper Nyovest representing Bitcasino as an ambassador.
More crypto companies like Roqqu, Luno, and Quidax, to mention a few, are joining the music partnership bandwagon.
Crypto has even made its way into music videos. In the recent hit “Cryptocurrency” by Kuami Eugene and Rotimi – they explore a futuristic sci-fi world in which they mine cryptocurrency individually, then collaborate to mine it together.
In this video, leading African crypto exchange and financial platform, Yellow Card is referenced, and a transaction is carried out on the Yellow Card app.
A partnership like this is an indicator of just how well crypto and art can be integrated for more robust expressions in the entertainment industry.
Rachel Akalia, Regional Marketing Manager, West Africa at Yellow Card, says, “We see music as a special purpose vehicle with the potential to drive the message and acceptance of crypto for everyday use, helping the continent gain financial freedom and prosperity.”
Other than this alliance with Kuami Eugene, Yellow Card has also collaborated with Nigerian musician; Psycho YP, who featured the company in his recently released music video for his Stronger song which features Zlatan.
The company has other partnerships with Nigerian Urban artist; Odumodu Blvck and Ghanaian artist; Stonebwoy.
Through partnerships like this, Yellow Card hopes to encourage youths to embrace a new age of financial opportunities. This is keeping in alignment with its vision of enabling a continent with seamless financial inclusion across borders.
The possibilities are endless for what can be achieved with cryptocurrency, digitisation and Decentralised Finance in entertainment. From smart contracts to automated payments, better-organised teams across borders, and more, cryptocurrency might be the key to unlocking a greater dimension of how entertainment is created and shared across Africa and the world at large.
As Kuami says in his song, with cryptocurrency, we’re indeed on a new level.
