Passion for music helps student take his business to the next level

A GCU student is receiving plaudits for his work representing musicians around the world.

Serign Sanneh, who grew up in The Gambia, started his own music business podcast after receiving funding as part of the 2024 GCU Magnus Magnusson Awards.

The podcast follows on from his innovative idea,Jaalolu, which launched in 2019 to help creatives earn money for their music. The service, which uses technology to protect, monetise and collect royalties, recently saw Serign reach the semi-finals of Coverge, which encourages Scottish university innovators to launch their ideas into commercially viable businesses.

Serign said: “I’ve always loved music. When I was young back in the late 1980s, my cousins and I used to have a pretend band and we used to play together and pretend we were our favourite musicians from The Gambia. I now represent two of the artists we used to emulate through Jaalolu – it’s pretty crazy for me!

“I did my HND in Music Business between 2010 and 2011. I had a record label and a blog promoting Gambian music. I went in another direction after that but found myself drawn back to music. I then started Jaalolu while I was doing my Music Business Undergraduate between 2018 and 2020 at SAE Institute Glasgow, which is basically for the creative industries.”

Serign now find himself at GCU in the middle of his MSc International Tourism and Events Management degree, which has helped develop his business idea further.

He explained: “The music industry is my passion – it’s what makes me happy. Seeing artists being paid for their work gives me a lot of satisfaction.

“I’ve got around ten artists working with me just now living in The Gambia, United Kingdom, Finland, Sierra Leonne, Guinea-Bissau and Nigeria. Their entire music catalogue is under my protection now.

“The artists rights have been assigned to my company which then monetises and looks out for any rights infringements, like people using their music in videos. Technology means that people have also used older artists music and claimed it to be their own as a way of making money, so my company basically looks to keep an eye on this and get the artists what is rightfully theirs.

“Each song on Spotify now needs to have 1,000 plays before an artist get any money for it, so it is becoming more and more challenging for artists to make money. This is why I’ve started a podcast to help artists realise the best way to make money. I also support artists to create a presence on YouTube where they’ll be more likely to make money through artist channels.

“One of the reasons I came to GCU was because I noticed a lot of income is generated from live events – Live tracks also tend to be more popular in terms of streams. I decided I wanted to go and learn more about putting on events to help artists generate more listens and more money. It’s all about educating, empowering and enriching these artists.”

Serign added he has no regrets about coming to university: “I think it’s important to just go for these things,” he explained.

“If you’re making the decision to go to university then you’ve got to go all in. I was working 12-14 hours, seven days a week in my previous job. It’s not fun because there’s no opportunity for growth. Coming to GCU has opened so many doors to me.”

Converge has given Serign another opportunity to shine a light on the work that he’s doing, and he hopes it will allow him to progress his passion to new heights in the years to come.

“I nearly never applied for Converge because I was so busy with everything else. The application itself was quite challenging because it’s basically asking you everything about the business. I also had to talk about the stage Jaalolu is at, as well as the plans for the future. I believe strongly in what I’m doing so I could have spoken about it forever.

“The shortlist came out recently and I saw that I’d made the semi-final. It was an incredible moment because it just gives me a lot of validation. I had these crazy ideas in my head and I’ve been able to help people become a success in terms of the business side of their music. It really does mean a lot.”

For the next part of the competition, Serign will be required to attend training days at the University of Glasgow and Heriot-Watt, before re-submitting his business plan and doing a final presentation on his work.

“I’ve very excited for what’s to come, but no matter what happens I’ve had enough validation to know I’m on the right track,” he explained.

“People are seeing the value in my work and I really do believe in myself, and what I’m doing.”

By Ross Clark                 
Got an SHLS or GSBS story? Email me at Ross.Clark@gcu.ac.uk or message me on Twitter