Jeeni Blog

Helping the next generation of talent to build a global fanbase

INVITATION TO INVEST IN JEENI.COM

/ By Shena Mitchell
INVITATION TO INVEST IN JEENI.COM

The online platform where creatives keep 100% of what they earn, and audiences are rewarded every step of the way.

The Jeeni Additional Investment Period is now open to raise a further £100,000 via Instant Investment using the Seed Legals platform, with full EIS benefits. We have allocated this funding to extend our services in response to new market opportunities and conditions created by the pandemic. There has been an unprecedented demand from Jeeni members to provide bespoke user channels and direct marketing for online performances, goods and services. In addition, we are supporting our independent artists by matching them with music investors to finance studio time, video production, marketing and distribution of their original work, all as part of our Jeeni Pro service and social media systems. Due to the increased traffic, this is generating, we are migrating to the world-class AWS cloud platform. This £100,000 investment target is for 2.1% equity at the current pre-market valuation of £4.5million with a share price of £1.13p.

Major strategic partnerships have been consolidated by our US Managing Director, Kelli Richards. Former A&R Executive at EMI Music, she was mentored by Steve Jobs at Apple, where she launched and managed their music and entertainment division, resulting in the birth of global music online now known as Apple Music. Kelli is VP of Business Development with our US partnersAmplifyX.com, where investors back music they believe in, and she is a consultant to our streaming service partnersMultiViewMedia.co.uk, where viewers take control of their own entertainment experience. Both companies have joined Jeeni to produce J.A.M. (Jeeni, AmplifyX, MultiView), our series of online festivals where Grammy Award-Winners share the stage with our own brand-new talent. Our most recent festival was live-streamed on April 10th, and brought in over 10,000 new fans for our artists. Catch up with the event at jeeni.com/jam-festival.

We have three further announcements to make in this Investor Update. Firstly, in partnership with the Wings Tour Bus, artists voted most popular on Jeeni will appear on the Paul McCartney Stage when the most famous bus in the world goes on tour to mark the 50th anniversary of the original route. It has just been announced that the tour will follow a major publicity launch at the National Exhibition Centre in Birmingham UK this November.

Secondly, we are pleased to announce that we have bypassed the global shortage of PC and laptop components, and the first range of Jeeni own-brand computers is on sale at jeeni.com/shop.

And thirdly, we are proud to make this advance announcement that Jeeni has been selected for the world première of a major new opera set in contemporary New York. The subject matter is unique and the production is world-class. We will stream the event in partnership with MultiViewMedia and this marks a major milestone for our brand recognition. Investors will be given the opportunity to secure Virtual Green Room tickets and VIP access to the composer, the performers and the major celebrities behind the event, when the programme is officially announced next month.

We are opening Jeeni to investors worldwide for the first time, and are happy to declare our track record and current status to anyone who cares to visit jeeni.com/invest-in-jeeni. Your investment can be processed in as little as 30 minutes in the following simple steps.

1. You tell us how much you want to invest.

2. We add your details to the Seed Legals system, which calculates the shares to be issued.

3. We email you the Investment Proposal, Instant Investment Agreement and bank details.

4. You sign and witness the Agreement and your investment is transferred.

5. We agree to a Board Resolution and Shareholders Resolution and send form SH01 to Companies House for the issue of your shares. 

6. That’s it.

If you are still interested in investing in Jeeni please let us know so that we can send you the appropriate investment documents. 

10
Jun

Facing the Broken Music Industry.

By Adam Cowherd @ AmplifyX.com Did you know that artists take home only 12% of the $43 billion spent on music annually, according to Citigroup? [1] The hip-hop artist Russ put it perfectly when he said, “The music business isn’t set up for the artists to get rich. It’s set up for everyone else to get rich off the artists.” [2] If you start looking deeper into the music industry, one of the first things you’ll discover is how broken it is. Artists are the nucleus of the business, but somehow they’re the individuals left with no ownership of their Intellectual Property (IP), inhibited creative freedom, and only a sliver of the earnings. There are so many entities involved in the value chain of music that it has created a convoluted industry structure that lacks equality and transparency. When we break down the mechanics of the music industry, we see just how many hands are in the pot: record labels, managers, producers, booking agents, and streaming platforms. A report by Ernst & Young highlighted the post-tax payouts of streaming revenue and identified that record labels are taking nearly 75% of the payout. [3] Why are artists today signing with record labels? Signed artists have fans. They do not have a majority of royalties, ownership of their masters, or creative freedom. Artists have historically been enticed to join record labels as a way to grow their popularity, because major labels can provide global brand recognition. But the music industry is in the business of making a profit — not in the business of freebies. The artist’s growth may be guaranteed, but not their wealth. Take Thirty Seconds to Mars for instance: after multiple platinum records, they were still millions of dollars in debt to their label. [4] This is a result of the artist being forced to pay the label back for cash advances. Although advances may seem extremely alluring, many don’t realize how hard these loans will be to recoup from their small slice of royalties. Artists thriving off of their album sales are the exception, not the rule. This recognizable gap in income has inspired a large number of artists to start challenging the status quo of record label contracts. Artists today have more tools and resources to build their career — and wealth — independently. Traditional services formerly tied to record labels, like recording, distribution, and promotion, are becoming commodified. Also, modern artists have a wide range of social media platforms to engage listeners on, from Instagram to TikTok to Triller. Artists can grow their fame and find new fans on their own terms—retaining their rights and independence. Evaluating the industry today, music spending is at an all-time high. Goldman Sachs predicts we will have over 1.1 billion people on paid streaming platforms by 2030, generating over $130 billion in music industry revenue. [5] By pursuing alternative ways to release music, artists can take a larger cut of the profits while retaining ownership of their IP and a majority of royalties. The industry is projected to experience massive growth over the next decade. Artists should reap the rewards.

03
Mar

Team Jeeni- 4 months today since Lockdown.

LOCKDOWNThe impact of the pandemic crisis on the Jeeni project continues to be remarkably positive, not least because we have genuinely been able to help hard-hit artists and performers. The decision to open Jeeni for free subscriptions to all-comers in response to lockdown has seen mass sign-ups via our website and online community.  Yesterday, Jeeni returned to Crowdcube to raise more funds for helping new talent. Jeeni founding director Mel Croucher says, “We’re ahead of our original schedule, but there’s still so much more to do. We need to scale our online platform globally now and build our mass artist showcases to hit all our targets, and give our new artists the recognition they deserve.” We have already reached 90% of our target so if you want to see our pitch click HERE. Shena Mitchell, Jeeni founding director, says: "I have never worked so hard in my life, but it's actually been a welcomed distraction. I am fortunate that I have been working from home for many years, so no change there, and fortunate to be living in a house with an office and a garden. Living on my own 24/7 for 120 days has been a challenge. Working with musicians and performers in lockdown has been a massive privilege, listening to music all day and watching magical performances is a treat for me, as up until 2 years ago I was mainly working in academia and public sector fundraising for start-ups, which I loved. But working with Team Jeeni creatives is a dream come true. Most importantly, during this time of lockdown we have been able to reduce the cost of acquisition from £3 an artist to zero, and has again proved the concepts successfully pioneered in our Directors' previous marketing campaigns. We are connecting, collaborating, sharing and supporting each other, while we have fun and make a real difference, and we are delivering well. We now have over 27,000 unsigned artists waiting to be uploaded, with over a 1,000 new artists joining every day. As predicted, once the flood gates opened we would have plenty of content and could easily reach 100,000 videos relatively fast at no cost. However, we need to carefully balance our success against storage and streaming costs and that is why we have decided to relaunch Jeeni as a paid subscription service."  Jeeni aim to raise £100k for 2.4% equity with a pre-money valuation of £4million. Jeeni is needed more now than ever and we have proven that the demand is high. Jeeni Generation-4 will only support 100,000 videos, so we must now embrace Generation-5 as we head for global roll-out. TEAM  We are pleased to welcome five new members to Team Jeeni. Andrea Harding: Social Media. Dedicated to reaching out to new audiences, spreading the word about Jeeni artists, and helping build their fanbases. Sharron Goodyear: Image Maker. Photographer of the Year Winner, Jeeni official photographer for artists, performers, promotions and events, specialising in online virtual shoots.  Sammie Venn: Writer, Columnist and Blogger. Syndicating Jeeni news, interviewing and promoting our members, and spearheading our poetry and drama channels. Louis Mitchell: Video Wrangler. Identifying up-and-coming unsigned musicians, performers and dancers focused on Asian Hip Hop, Grunge and Rap. Lizzie Crow. Popular presenter for the BBC and top commercial broadcasters, and our go-to expert for voice-overs, podcasts, jingles and spoken word channels.  Click HERE to visit or return to jeeni.com

05
Jun

Exploring the Rivalry and Respect between Paul McCartney and Brian Wilson

by Kelli Richards, Jeeni MD USA Click HERE to visit or return to jeeni.com A guy named Jeffrey Stillwell has put together a great video essay focused on the so-called “rivalry” between the Beach Boys and the Beatles; and in particular the relationship between Paul McCartney and Brian Wilson. They were most certainly inspired by each other creatively and each wound up bringing out the best in each other as both are quick to confess. When “Pet Sounds” came out, it blew the minds of the Beatles, and that was a big catalyst to what would become “Sgt Pepper” in terms of musical experimentation — both are still such iconic albums that it’s hard to believe it’s been 50 years since each was released. This video biopic also chronicles the relationship and interactions between Paul and Brian over the decades, and ultimately the deep respect they have for each other —and it’s worth investing the 20 minutes to watch it. There’s also a personal tie for me here in a couple of ways. As a teenager, I was hugely influenced by both groups and in particular the Beatles; I became a life-long Beatle-ologist as a result (as a hobby). It also led me to a career in music & music tech (initially wanting to be a record producer having immersed myself in the techniques of production) — first as young A&R exec at EMI/Capitol, and then when I launched and ran Apple’s earliest focus on music and entertainment during my lengthy tenure there (where among my responsibilities, I had to deal with the fall out of the lawsuits between Apple Inc and Apple Records – the Beatles’ company). I also parlayed that early production passion into being a talent producer of award shows and celebrity fundraiser events over several decades. One of the events I was asked to co-produce was called “Adopt-a-Minefield” in conjunction the with the United Nations. Paul’s then-wife, Heather Mills, was heavily involved in the cause, and she organized these annual events (I believe there were five) featuring Paul and his band, and another major artist. I co-produced the event in 2002; Paul had invited Stephen Stills and Brian Wilson to perform with him — and the event was hosted by Jay Leno. The event took place in LA, and was a high-ticket event; I believe it was limited to 500 in attendance. I had some interesting conversations and interaction with Paul that evening, who was determined to ensure all the details to do with the production of the event were flawless and well-thought-out. For the 500 of us in attendance, it was magical to watch Paul and Brian doing a duet on both “God Only Knows”, a favorite of Paul’s, and on “Let It Be”. It’s too bad it wasn’t taped so it could be streamed. There can be no doubt of the creative genius and respect these two have for each other’s music and as individuals. As a final aside, Paul and Brian were born just two days apart in June 1942; geniuses in good company from the very start! (There’s a cute clip in the video essay of Brian calling Paul on his birthday and singing a verse from Paul’s “Birthday” song). Click HERE to visit or return to jeeni.com