Serial entrepreneur and former recording artist Victor D. LombardAlso generally known as Divine, he announced the launch of a recent company this week, in cooperation with RakimOne of the most influential hip-hop emce.
The company is called notesFinTech especially for independent cities of musicians and creators. It provides knowledge and tools that help artists manage their profession – corresponding to providing resources that can help them apply for loans or access credit results. It provides financial knowledge and music education, offering multimedia courses, step -by -step guides on financial management and easy methods to earn on music. It also has a function that permits artists to write down texts and connect with peers in the application.
Notes have the “digital passport” function, which allows users to trace credit results, access loans and budget tools. The company cooperates with lenders and creditors and earns a commission from fees for the command when users apply for loans via the platform.
The application, currently in the beta version, has AI tools, including AI voice assistant in Rakima’s voice. He hopes for full launch at the end of February.
Talking to TechCrunch, Divine said that he inspired him to launch this company with Rakim because of his first -hand experience in dealing with the independent scene of urban music and the difficulties that appears during profession financing. It is well documented, through movies, profiles and the music itself, which broke into the music industry It is hard and expensive. Thousands just fight for every known artist who goes to the charts.
“The music industry, in the current situation, is oriented to the use of artists through exploiting contracts and limited financial resources, forcing them to predatory contracts only for survival,” he said. Spending the past 10 years of the building FinTech, also said that he began to perceive technology as a great concealer, a option to redistribute controls from artists and creators. The Divine had previously founded a fintech bone, which focused on the service of the community under defeat, and built a solvent, neobank also for underestimated communities.
So he thought about notes to enable musicians for education, financing their very own projects and building a profession on their very own terms. He said that now there is a good time for this product, because independent artists and creators are becoming stronger and influential, but they still lack much financial support.
Divine then gave the company to the Rakima team as a way for a partner, and “became an even stronger force of changes,” said Divine.
Rakim was part of the hip-hop group Eric B. & Rakim, which in the 80s waves in the golden age of hip-hop. Their album “Paid in Full” was mentioned as one of The best albums of all time By Rolling Stone in 2020, because it was one of the first albums in which functions were used and influenced the flow and lyricism of rappers.
Divine says that he has known Rakima for 20 years and all the time admired him for “he will remain faithful to his artists and principles.”
“When I started to indulge notes, I knew it had to be more than a Fintech platform, it had to be a movement rooted in the values of strengthening and cultural authenticity,” Divine continued. “That is why it was sensible to put Rakima on board.”
Partnership sees that Rakim appears as a co -founder and member of the Advisory Council. The son of Rakima, Tahmell Griffin, also holds a managerial position in the company.
At the moment the company is financed, but Divine said that the company is looking for a round of seeds. Notes are offered by membership in the Freemium and Premium subscription. He tried to earn money on his subscription models and fees for the command. He says that this company is the culmination of his music and technological travel.
“I want the notes to move the narrative from artists used by labels to artists with their financial future and career success,” said Divine. “If the artist can use notes to get the financing of the next album, learn to run a musical career as a business, and use the cooperation of the community for growth, we succeeded.”