Michael Ugwu, Founder & CEO, Freeme Digital Ltd
Michael is the Founder and CEO of Freeme Digital Ltd. Freeme Digital is a Label Services & Distribution company in Nigeria offering A&R, production, marketing and distribution services. Michael is also the Founder of The Freeme Space the largest state of the art digital production studio and sound stage in Lagos Nigeria. The Freeme Space has hosted the biggest artists and brands on the continent including Burna Boy, Wizkid, Hennessy, Essence Magazine, Big Brother Africa, MTV Base, The Tonight Show (Jimmy Fallon) and many others. Michael was the pioneer General Manager for Sony Music Entertainment West Africa, one of the largest record labels in the world. With Sony Music Michael represented a catalogue of over 5 million records from some of the world’s greatest local and international talents ranging from Afropop superstars such as Wizkid and Davido to global talents such as Beyonce, Michael Jackson, Travis Scott, Future and many more. As well as being involved in the signings of Wizkid and Davido to Sony Music Michael brokered a first of its kind major label catalogue licensing deal with MTN the largest telecommunications company in Africa (60m subscribers) in April 2018 before he left Sony Music. In 2020 Michael became the first Nigerian to be appointed to the Merlin Network board. Considered the 4th Major Label and representing 15% of global independent music rights the Merlin Network has distributed over $2 billion to its 900 label members since 2008 counting labels such as Domino Records, Secretly Canadian, Beggars, Jag Jaguar, Mtheory, K7, PIAS, Sub Pop, AWAL and many others amongst its membership.
Michael plays in the Lagos Angel investment space having invested in a number of innovative platforms such as www.shecluded.com (a female only financial services company) www.atideproject.com, (an innovative creative agency) www.vibe.ng and www.spendify.ng (expense tracker). Michael is also an avid crypto currency investor with investments in two Lagos based crypto start-up’s www.coinprofile.co a crypto remittance platform and www.buycoins.africa (Y Combinator) a VC backed crypto exchange. Michael is an avid investor in NFTs often describing himself as possibly the only Crypto Punk in Africa. Since May 2020 he has amassed a collection of over 400 NFTs including Crypto Punks, Art Blocks (Curated, Playground and Factory) Meebits, Bored Apes, RarePepe’s, , as well as pieces from Fewocious, Hackatao, Trevor Jones, Micah Johnson, Xcopy, Osinachi, Fvck Render and others since he got into the space.