Jon is co-founder of AMPD Studios — this interview has been lightly edited for style and readability
Jon Savage: AMPD is my baby. A few lifetimes ago, I was a rock star and I was in a band that toured the world for six years. And one of the things I really saw in first world countries is the amount of infrastructure and support you get in the creator space. But back home in Africa, it’s really different and it’s hardcore. Like being a creator, being a music artist, being a podcaster.
We had this idea to see if we could build an ecosystem for musicians. We bought this huge space. It’s got like world-class recording studios, got a live event space, it’s got all this stuff, and it’s free. But very shortly, like a year in, it moved into a podcasting space very, very quickly. And we’ve been in for six years.
We’ve never applied for funding. We’ve never needed any help. We have a community of 15,000. We record over 200 episodes there a month for podcasters. We have five podcasting studios and a music studio and a YouTube studio, video and audio both, cameras in every room, full crew, and it’s completely free for the creator economy.
And what’s happened over these last years is we’ve created the biggest podcasters. Part of where the Africa Podcast Network came from was through the community we were building at AMPD. The biggest podcasters, the smallest podcasters, and people have just walked off the street saying, I don’t know how to podcast this, but I want to make one. They all have a home at AMPD.
We have masterclasses every single week with the biggest stars. We do networking sessions between corporates and podcasters. It’s a very rich, amazing environment. We have hot desk space in there, free internet… whenever I go in there, I never know what’s happening. It’s just an incredible community that we’ve been spending over the last six years. This is a video showing some of what’s going on.
Sam Sethi: 15,000, that’s pretty amazing. And given the fact that you’ve set this up, it’s free for everybody. What’s the current state of play then?
JS: We’re in trouble. Like I said, we’re doing the government’s work here. It’s impact work and it’s building a community. But we’ve never applied for any funding. We’ve never been given anything. From day one, we’ve had brands come to us and support because they want to support the creator industry in Africa and support what we’re doing and do little deals with us, and sometimes two-year deals and three-year deals. And so we’ve never really worried as long as the overheads were covered and the community has been thriving.
We’ve hit a snag because the overheads for the space, as you can imagine, is quite high. The building is big. The gear is amazing. There’s 13 staff. And our latest client, we’re actually two years into a three-year partnership deal. They restructured at the last minute and the funding just got pulled immediately. And even though we’ve actually got a line of brands who want to work with us, we all know that brands don’t move quickly.
So, we’re going to be forced to close down very, very shortly if we can’t actually just get through the next few months. So we’re really putting an appeal out to anyone interested in investing in the creator economy, wanting to support. We’ve just launched a BackaBuddy crowdfunding site. Anyone who wants to just help get us through these next three, four months and keep the longevity of AMP running. And so this is why, like I reached out to you, this is a real call to really help a lot of people. A lot of people really rely on AMP.
We forgot to mention, we also have post-production facilities all over. There’s this natural ecosystem where young guys have come and built a business doing post-production for the podcasters who are at AMP using our ecosystem. So the government should really come along and play ball here. But we’re in a country where that doesn’t happen always.
SS: It’s not like you’re going to the government and saying, could we have some money to create AMPD - it’s is already here, built and functional. You’re looking now for some support to keep this going. Is there no opportunity that the government will come in and help you at all?
JS: There is, because I’ve been in conversations with them. The problem we have is time. This contract that got the rug pulled from us, it would be an absolute tragedy to close down AMPD because of time. The reality is if they had given us normal three to four months notice, there wouldn’t be a problem. But the whole media environment is in a bit of a shaky space globally, and no one is spending money quickly.
We have been inundated with love, with support, with brands saying we want in, with a bidding war to work with the studio. But those things take real time. We are out of time. The government have come and said, this is an incredible platform. We’re definitely going to support this. Apply for this fund, and in six months you’ll be eligible for it.
So we’re kind of in this funnel where we really are stuck. And it takes a lot for me to reach out and ask for the type of help that I am. But this is such a – it’s hard to explain if you’re not from here. But the rung of the ladder is way below anywhere else. Like when you’re in the UK or in America, it’s very easy to get to that first rung, and then it’s harder to keep climbing. But the gap from beginning is so huge. And that’s what AMPD has really done. It’s had an impact on culture because it’s given people knowledge and information and access to stuff they would never get. And there’s nothing else doing that here. We are impacting the creator economy and teaching people how to monetize their art.
This is not like my core business. I’m running my podcast network. But my heart is like this is a total tragedy if we can’t get support. And we’re willing to sell shares in AMPD if someone wants to invest. It is profitable. It’s made a profit since day one for six years. It’s a good business. If you’re a record label or a podcast network, if you want to know where all the talent is, it’s here. So there’s a lot of commercial value for it as well. But also if you just want to help, then gooi - that’s Afrikaans for throw - gooi something into the funding bucket because it’s for a really good cause.
SS: What are you looking for to keep things going?
JS: We’re looking for $100,000. That’ll keep us going for three and a half months to four months. That’ll be plenty.
There aren’t many crowdfunding websites that actually worked in South Africa, but ours is on BackaBuddy.
Or, if they’d like to directly contact with me,
I think the best thing to do is email my personal email address, jon@theeye.co.za. Whatever it takes to keep this baby alive, we’re willing to do.
SS: John, I wish you all the best in the world, mate.
JS: Sam, you are the best. Thank you.