A BETTER DEAL

This is the promise being made by Graham Yarde, entrepreneur and creator of Trident Music, after the recent launch of the new local audio streaming e-commerce platform. Yarde said his new platform, which is slated to be available in all major app stores by September 30th, will bring greater monetary value to local artists, but offering 80% of the money from work sold on the platform.

He said: “My aim for Trident is to make it solely exclusive. I want that if Bajan artistes are out there on other streaming platforms and fans value them, they should be able to come to [Trident]. Most artistes would put on all streaming platforms and then gain revenue from that; my aim is not that. I did not want to split [the revenue] in the middle, I wanted to give an incentive that they can gain more. The 80/20 [split], they are gaining more revenue from that.”

Yarde stated that after seeing artists struggle for a number of years to make money from their releases, particularly during the COVID period, he felt the need for a new platform was necessary“What drove me to start Trident Music was not only my love for technology and business, but I also see daily how our local artistes struggle to make ends meet. Yes, we put soca out there, because soca is our brand, but there is a lot of hidden talent out there.”Musicians, including visual and spoken word artists, can contact Yarde at tridentmusicbb@gmail.com to have their works featured on the platform.