Africa
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Of his previous trips to Africa, Larry Jackson says simply, “[They have been] tattooed on my heart.” Now, with his latest venture, he’s looking to put his own stamp on the continent.
Gamma, Jackson’s recently launched media company, announced in May that it was expanding operations into Africa and the Middle East with Sipho Dlamini and Naomi Campbell onboard as president and special advisor for Africa and the Middle East, respectively. And this month, the company named Larry Gaaga vp/GM for Africa and Dany Neville as vp of A&R for the Middle East. One of Gaaga’s primary focuses will be spearheading initiatives to develop local talent, and he’s already begun discussions with Dlamini and Campbell on how they’ll discover and develop more African female artists. In his role, Neville will be identifying and nurturing Middle Eastern talent.
The move into both regions comes at an opportune time. According to the 2023 IFPI Global Music Report, Sub-Saharan Africa became the fastest-growing region in the world last year, with a 34.7% increase in revenue largely driven by South Africa’s booming market, where sales were up by 31.4%. Meanwhile, the Middle East and North Africa (MENA), 2021’s fastest-growing region, experienced a 23.8% increase in revenue driven almost entirely by streaming, which has a 95.5% share of the region’s recorded music market — the highest of any in the world.
Gamma is joining a long list of Western music companies to have set up shop in both territories over the last few years. UMG Nigeria and Sony Music Entertainment West Africa have both established offices in Lagos, Nigeria. In 2020, EMPIRE signed a distribution and publishing deal with Olamide’s independent label YBNL Nation, leading to the launch of EMPIRE Africa in Lagos two years later. Elsewhere on the continent, Warner Music Africa is based out of Johannesburg, South Africa, where Universal Music Africa also established one of two regional headquarters (the other is in Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire). UMG has also been making inroads in the MENA region, from Republic Records partnering with Wassim “Sal” Slaiby to launch Universal Arabic Music to becoming the first major music company to open operations in Casablanca, Morocco. Universal Music MENA and Sony Music Middle East have headquarters in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, while Warner Music Middle East is based out of Beirut.
Gamma will have staff in Johannesburg, Lagos and Dubai, with plans for a physical office in Lagos. Dlamini will be based in Lagos and Dubai while frequently traveling to South Africa, Saudi Arabia and other countries in the markets; Campbell will also be frequently present in both regions, says a company spokesperson. On the African continent, Gaaga will help guide teams in Johannesburg and Lagos (where he’ll be based). And in the Middle East, Neville will be stationed in Dubai, where he’s established himself as one of the UAE’s groundbreaking on-air radio personalities/DJs.
The company has already gained a foothold in Africa thanks to its acquisition of music distribution service Vydia in December. Vydia’s founder/gamma chief technology and product officer Roy LaManna says that since Vydia launched on the continent in 2017, it’s become the company’s second-largest territory in the world thanks to partnerships with local record labels like Mr. Eazi’s emPawa Africa and Don Jazzy’s Mavin Records — which gamma is now using to further expand there. In April, gamma exclusively distributed and marketed a re-release of Mavin artist Rema’s Rave & Roses debut album in African territories, marking the company’s first regional move. The album includes Rema’s latest smash “Calm Down” with Selena Gomez, which has amassed 7.52 billion total on-demand streams globally, including user-generated content (UGC does not count toward Billboard’s charts). Vydia says the single has garnered 482 million streams across the African continent, while Rave & Roses has amassed more than 580 million streams across all tracks.
By owning Vydia, gamma will be able to support African artists in building careers in their home countries and beyond by offering technology and data that “can identify where tracks and artists are performing and then support and elevate them into a better space,” says Dlamini, while also offering staff on the ground where they are.
Dlamini has an impressive track record. For 24 years, he has been a music industry leader in Africa, including the seven years he spent at UMG, first as MD and then as CEO, along with a four-year stint at the Southern African Music Rights Organization (SAMRO), where he was eventually promoted to CEO. Prior, Dlamini was vp of operations at CSM Sport & Entertainment in Dubai, where he oversaw the largest concerts and music festivals in the region. In his previous role as MD of Universal Music South Africa and Sub-Saharan Africa, he launched Def Jam Africa — where he hired Gaaga as vp of A&R last year — with headquarters in Lagos and Johannesburg.
Jackson says he “had always admired” Dlamini’s hustle as CEO of Universal Music South Africa and Sub-Saharan Africa. “[He] built them into the No. 1 market share of any company in music in Africa,” he says. When the two eventually met through a mutual friend, music industry veteran Marc Byers, he continues, “I knew that I wanted to work together.”
While Campbell may not be known for her music industry experience — which has been limited to music video cameos and one studio album — she has long been a champion of developing opportunities in both Africa and the Middle East. She’s founded several charitable organizations benefiting emerging markets, including Fashion for Relief, which helps develop fashion, technology, business, entertainment and arts industries around the world, as well as the Emerge Initiative, which supports the next generation of creatives and entrepreneurs through apprenticeships, after-school programs and more.
“Naomi is truly one of the most powerful and impressive dignitaries in the world,” says Jackson. “She’s really rising to the challenge of being an executive and really has foresight, energy, ambition, ideas, influence – all of it.” Before gamma, Campbell helped him sort out “some work visa issues” when he traveled to South Africa with Drake in 2016 (during his stint as global creative director at Apple Music) by tapping her contacts within the country’s government as well as with Nelson Mandela’s family. Since then, she has introduced him to some of the most notable figures in Africa and the Middle East, from Afrobeats superstars Wizkid and Burna Boy to the Saudi Arabian minister of culture, Prince Badr bin Abdullah bin Mohammed bin Farhan Al Saud.
“I’m proud that a brother, a man of color and culture, is taking the reins and starting his own company,” says Campbell. “When he offered me this gig, I said yes because it’s a challenge for me. Yes, it’s not my day job, but at the end of the day, it’s about if you care. And I care, as everyone knows, about the continent and all the emerging markets.” Campbell also signed a podcast deal with gamma, according to Jackson, with the show expected to launch later this year.
For all of their promise, the African and Middle Eastern music markets come with significant hurdles. Chief among them is the issue of low streaming service subscribers in Africa, which Jackson is currently focused on finding solutions for.
“Streaming services in one of the biggest [African] territories, if not the biggest territory, Nigeria, have very low subscriber growth and very low subscribers in general,” says Jackson, adding that he’s already been speaking with his former Apple colleague Oliver Schusser about solving what he calls the biggest issue limiting that growth: payment.
While “the value of music and people’s willingness to pay for music” on the continent “is a lot less than in other territories,” Jackson admits, part of the payment issue stems from the fact that more people in Africa are likely to own a mobile phone than a bank account — which is why streaming services have been relying on telecommunications deals to significantly grow their subscriber bases. Through partnerships with local wireless providers in key markets — Vodacam in Tanzania, Airtel in Nigeria and MTN in Nigeria, Ghana and South Africa — Africa-focused streaming service Mdundo can bypass the issue of low penetration of payment cards in Africa and reach 185 million wireless subscribers, according to the company’s June 2023 guidance report. Other streamers have developed alternative payment methods, such as M-Pesa, which transforms a user’s SIM card and phone into a virtual banking system. Spotify allowed users in Kenya to pay using M-Pesa when the company began operating in the country two years ago.
While Jackson certainly sees the value in streamers making telco deals in Africa, he believes more can be done to convert music fans into streaming subscribers by, for example, making exclusive deals with artists — a strategy he successfully implemented during his previous gig. “Nothing has more relevance than Drake’s album being exclusive on Apple,” he says. “You can debate that all day, [but] there’s no carrier deal that’s going to bring you that level of audience. Bringing the artists and the culture and the community together with the streaming services I think is a missing part that hasn’t been done.”
Universal Music Group has elevated Manusha Sarawan to oversee its efforts and market-leading label roster across southern and eastern Africa. In her new Johannesburg-based role as managing director, Southern and East Africa, Sarawan will continue to work closely with Adam Granite, UMG’s evp of market development, who said she was “ideally suited” for the role. Sarawan was […]
Last May, Billboard launched its U.S. Afrobeats Songs chart, highlighting some of the best music coming out of the African music scene and impacting listeners in the States. But we’d been paying increasing attention to what’s been going on there for several years now, and the heightened attention has only helped shine a light on a growing generation of performers and songwriters. These rising artists are not only pushing the genre forward, but expanding it beyond its traditional boundaries — incorporating hip-hop, amapiano, R&B, jazz, soul and just about everything else into a melting pot that, for lack of a better overarching term, we’ll still refer to as Afrobeats.
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To help celebrate the growing influence and diversity of the music that’s coming out with increasing frequency, Billboard is launching a new, monthly column to highlight 10 of the best new Afrobeats (and its relatives) songs in a given month. That doesn’t mean there aren’t plenty more where these came from — and, for this first column, we’ve pulled some of the best songs from the last few months of 2022 to help kick things off in 2023 — but here is the first collection of some of our recent favorites, with a Spotify playlist at the end to help you get into the vibe. So without further ado, here are 10 Afrobeats tracks that are catching our ears already this year.
Libianca, “People”
Libianca’s breakout single “People” is a stirring cry for help that has been echoing throughout TikTok and reached No. 2 on U.S. Afrobeats Songs. She offers listeners raw insight into her mood disorder Cyclothymia by constantly questioning “Did you check on me? Now, did you notice me?” with soothing, supple vocals and tinkering bells that buoy Libianca from feeling low. From competing on season 22 of NBC’s The Voice to signing with RCA Records and producer Jae5’s 5K Records, the Cameroonian American singer-songwriter is giving Afro-soul music a global platform.
Tiwa Savage and Asake, “Loaded”
Tiwa Savage and Asake take shots at their haters on “Loaded,” one of the highlights from Empire’s first-ever African compilation album Where We Come From, Vol. 1. The self-praising track blends theatrical string arrangements, amapiano’s syncopated breakbeats, gospel choral melodies and rap’s braggadocio, signature sonic ingredients from Asake’s successful debut album Mr. Money With the Vibe. The African Bad Gyal complements his swagger and addresses a leaked sex tape from last year by deflecting her defamers and teasing, “Na who never f–k, hands in the air!”
Burna Boy, “Alone”
The African Giant feels powerless and begs God not to abandon him in “Alone,” his standout contribution to the Black Panther: Wakanda Forever soundtrack. Burna Boy kicks off the track with his siren-like humming before sorrowful strings and his desolate vocals take over the verses. And while the chorus translates to a cry for help, empowering harmonies and triumphant percussion back Burna up and make him sound less alone.
Aya Nakamura, “Baby”
Malian-French singer Aya Nakamura prides herself on being the apple of someone else’s eye on her new single “Baby,” which was released ahead of her fourth album DNK. “Because I’m his baby, wants to be my daddy,” she flaunts in her robust, native French vocals. Nakamura also flaunts her prowess, coordinated gal pals and Y2K-inspired fashion in the accompanying music video.
Ruger, “Asiwaju”
Afrobeats newcomer Ruger boldly crowns himself “asiwaju,” or champion in Yoruba, in this guitar-driven, melodic offering. The 23-year-old Jonzing World signee rejects his Gen-Z label and promises to “bring hell to anybody wey try test me” in his sharp-tongued bars, deceptively coated with his syrupy vocals. Ruger also looks effortlessly cool while parading around the city with his namesake flag-waving crew and schoolkids in the accompanying visual.
Kizz Daniel, “RTID (Rich Till I Die)”
A breezy, infectious melody; a confident, carefree hook; a major key pop feel: What’s not to like? Kizz Daniel has been growing in popularity for a few years now, with his latest a perfect mood for a summertime afternoon — “I live the life that I love/ I love the life that I live” — that has the type of staying power to last into those months. With the release of its music video two weeks ago, it makes its debut on U.S. Afrobeats Songs at No. 29 on the chart dated Jan. 21, with the promise of warmer days ahead.
Teni, Mayorkun & Costa Titch feat. Ch’cco, “MAITAMA”
Teni had one of the best albums of the year in 2021 in her debut Wondaland, a lush collection of songs that established her as one of the brightest voices to emerge in the past few years. “MAITAMA” picks up right where that album left off, with an earworm of a melody and a propulsive beat that provides a platform for guests Mayorkun, Costa Titch and Ch’cco to leave their stamp. If this is a precursor to a sophomore album, there may already be an early contender for the best of the year.
Zinoleesky, “Personal”
Zinoleesky first caught our attention with his show-stopping verse on Lil Kesh’s 2022 hit “Don’t Call Me,” and his latest EP Grit & Lust, released just ahead of Christmas, is a welcome introduction to a new rising talent out of Nigeria. The whole project is worth checking out — a particular shout out to “Yan Yan Yan” — but “Personal” is another standout from the project, with a clean production leaving the singer/rapper to establish a thesis statement of sorts, and a promising future of what’s to come.
Seyi Vibez, “Alaska”
Seyi Vibez broke out last year with his Billion Dollar Baby album, introducing a fresh voice to the scene. But his five-song Memory Card EP is something else entirely: less produced, more insistent, with a raw feeling as if it simply spilled over from the street onto the record. “Alaska” is as good a representative of the project as any; its stripped-down instrumentation relies more on layered vocals and a stray flute than it does on anything traditional, as it bores its way into the memory almost involuntarily. An absolutely original voice.
Victony & Tempoe, “Soweto”
This song has been around for a minute now, but the song’s smooth, danceable beat, produced by Tempoe, is too infectious not to include here. The track peaked at No. 15 on U.S. Afrobeats Songs towards the end of last year, but its vibe has it leading playlists into 2023, while its playful lyrics and catchy melody have seen it stick around for months on the charts, with no signs of it going anywhere.
Sony Music has added Christel Kayibi to its Africa & Continental Europe team, which she will join as director of repertoire strategy, Africa.
In her new London-based role, Kayibi will be one of the few executives to focus on both Anglophone and Francophone Africa, where she will develop Sony Music’s roster and network; identify catalog, label and other investment opportunities; and drive Sony Music’s entry into new markets across the continent. Kayibi will also work closely with the label’s regional and local Africa teams to assist with the signing of artists in partnership with Sony Music labels worldwide.
For her first project, Kayibi forged a partnership between Sony Music Africa and Afrochella’s parent company, Culture Management Group, along with the streaming service Audiomack, to give unsigned African talent an opportunity to compete for global distribution deals and record contracts through the Ghana-based music festival’s expanded “Rising Star Stage” competition. She will report directly to Daniel Lieberberg, president of Continental Europe & Africa, for Sony, in coordination with Sean Watson, managing director of Sony Music Africa.
Kayibi’s hiring reinforces Africa’s position as a hotbed for global talent that all three major labels want to develop. In September, Def Jam signed an exclusive worldwide joint venture with Native Records, a Nigeria- and U.K.-based label. In June, Universal Music Group also launched Virgin Music Label & Artist Services Africa, which includes over 15,000 music titles, with more than 50 label partners from 25 countries, and releases from more than 100 of Africa’s leading artists. In the last couple of years, Warner Music Group has partnered with Chocolate City, one of Nigeria’s leading independent labels that includes Afrobeat pioneer Fela Kuti‘s son Femi Kuti and “Love Nwantiti (Ah Ah Ah)” hitmaker CKay on its roster, and appointed Temi Adeniji as managing director of Warner Music South Africa and senior vp strategy for Sub-Saharan Africa, a post — similar to Kayibi’s — that’s meant to enhance the company’s presence in the region.
Before moving up at Sony Music, which she joined in 2019, Kayibi previously worked as the senior legal and business affairs manager and A&R at Columbia Records in the U.K., where she worked closely with finance, sales and marketing to ensure successful day-to-day operations of labels, including Columbia Records, 5K Records, Robots + Humans and Dream Life Records.
Before joining Sony Music, Kayibi worked as a lawyer at Slaughter and May, White & Case and Hunton Andrews Kurth LLP.
In 2017, Kayibi became the global legal counsel for Nigerian artist and entrepreneur Mr. Eazi and worked with him on building up his label Banku Music — which expanded its roster beyond its founder with the addition of Nigerian singer Joeboy, Ghanaian singer J.Derobie and Ghanaian DJ/producer GuiltyBeatz –as well as his African talent incubator, emPawa Africa, which currently distributes audio and video content for 100 artists across the African continent. Earlier this year, Kayibi won the best lawyer award at the 2022 Young Music Boss Awards in London, which recognizes the achievements of rising music executives under the age of 35.
Unsigned and emerging artists in Africa will soon be able to compete for global distribution deals and record contracts with Sony Music Africa through a new collaboration between the major label and the companies behind the Afrochella Festival in Ghana.
Afrochella’s parent company, Culture Management Group, and media streaming service Audiomack, are teaming up with Sony Music Africa to expand the “Rising Star Stage” competition, which previously entitled winners to a chance to perform onstage at the festival.
With Sony’s involvement, up to 10 prize winners chosen from a short list of 25 will be signed to distribution deals with Sony Music Africa, which will take their music out to the world, Sony says in a press release.
The Grand Prize winner will secure an exclusive recording agreement with Sony Music Africa for the release of a single; marketing support (including a music video); free access to Afrochella’s recording studio as well as mentoring and training from industry executives and “leading musicians and producers,” Sony says. The top winner will also have the opportunity to perform live at Afrochella.
Five winners, including the Grand Prize winner, will also be able to perform on Afrochella’s Rising Star Stage alongside headliners on the festival’s second day, Dec. 29.
To enter the competition, artists need to upload an original song to Audiomack and create an Instagram Reel that includes an introduction about the artist, their approach to music and music-making process, and “what they want their potential audience to know about their style of music,” Sony says.
“With the strong backing of Sony Music, we now have the exciting opportunity to make an artist’s dreams come to life by providing them with a distribution deal and sustainable resources to help jumpstart their musical career,” Abdul Karim Abdullah, CEO and co-founder of Afrochella, says in a statement.
The “Rising Star Challenge” is now underway, and winners will be chosen during the two-day festival. The sixth edition of Afrochella, scheduled for Dec. 28 and 29 in Ghana’s capital Accra, features headliners Burna Boy, StoneBwoy and Fireboy DML.
Last month Coachella Music Festival sued the organizers of Afrochella, saying they infringed on Coachella’s trademarks and had allegedly tried to register the Coachella name in Ghana through the country’s intellectual property office, which was denied. Goldenvoice owns the trademark for both Coachella and the word Chella, preventing it from being added to other event titles in a way that could confuse fans.
For months, industry executives from Warner Music Group to Kobalt have been steadily beating a drum for investing in the Middle East and African markets.
On Thursday (Nov. 3), it it looked like the investor interest swirling around the region may be codified when Frankly magazine reported that Spotify was considering buying Anghami, the Arab-speaking world’s most popular streaming and content service. Billboard could not independently verify the report, however, and a source close to the situation refuted its contents. A Spotify spokesperson says the company has “no news to report regarding any potential acquisition.” Still, investment bankers say we are likely to see increasing investor interest and action around music assets in these markets, as song catalog prices remain elevated and the challenging macroeconomic outlook for North America and Europe slows down the pace of dealmaking there.
Financial players say that the dominant music streaming platforms and labels are looking to extend their global reach through popular streaming companies like Anghami in the Middle East and Boomplay and others in Africa because of those regions’ rapid growth, comparatively positive economic outlooks and the explosive potential for converting free subscribers to paid.
Anghami CEO and co-founder Eddy Maroun declined to comment on the acqusition reports out Thursday, but in a late-September interview Maroun confirmed the company has been approached by interested parties in the past.
“We believe what we are on to as an opportunity is big,” Maroun told Billboard at the time. “Until now we are independent, and we wish to remain independent as long as it’s in line with our company goals.”
The Middle East and North Africa (MENA) was the fastest-growing region globally last year, with revenues up 35% to $89.5 million and a market that nearly doubled between 2019 and 2021, according to the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI). More than 95% of MENA revenues came from streaming, and paid subscribership is expected to double by 2030.
“This sends a very big message to every industry player that this is a hot region and that this is where growth is,” Maroun said in September.
Launched in 2012, Anghami is the first and most popular streaming and content company focused on Arabic-language music, with about 58% of the Middle East’s market share and around 20 million active users, according to company filings.
With investors including the Saudi Arabia-backed firm MBC Group and Middle East Venture Partners and partner Sony Music Entertainment Middle East, with whom Anghami launched a joint venture record label last year, Maroun and co-founder took Anghami public in February.
After listing on the NASDAQ through a reverse merger with a special purpose acquisition company, Anghami stocks have fallen nearly 75% to $2.56 on the NASDAQ as of Thursday. Meanwhile, the company reported first-half 2022 revenues increased by almost 30% and monthly paid subscribers rose by 41% to 1.28 million. Bank sources described that growth as “encouraging,” and say that Anghami’s low stock price could make it an appealing acquisition for companies like Spotify.
For its part, Anghami aims to diversify its business with an entertainment division that houses a content creation studio, runs Anghami’s record label, Vibe Music Arabia, and operates a chain of music venues and lounges, the first of which recently opened in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.
In addition to MENA, music and streaming companies in Sub-Saharan Africa, where music revenues grew by 9.6% last year, are steadily gaining big industry investors.
Major labels like Sony Music Group are adding staff to local offices in West Africa — where Sony previously had just two people — and Warner Music Group is leaning further into their strategy to acquire record labels and distribution companies in Africa, one of five priorities it pitched to investors during their 2020 IPO roadshow, say bankers familiar with the matter.
“French copyrights and Latin American copyrights became popular a little earlier,” says Michael Ryan-Southern, Goldman Sachs’ global head of music and live entertainment investment banking. “Now we’re seeing more and more music coming out of these local territories and therefore [companies] need to invest to make sure they are capturing that funnel of new artists locally to exploit globally.”
In its most recent Music In the Air report, Goldman Sachs analysts said Africa presents “a significant opportunity over time” and specifically highlighted Boomplay, one of the leading music streaming services, with 60 million monthly active users and a rapidly expanding song catalog.
Sources say streaming services and other companies that provide infrastructure for music are currently more appealing investment opportunities than catalogs by popular artists in the region because investors fear those are less mature assets with unknown decay rates.
Executives from Warner Music Group, Reservoir Media, Primary Wave, Kobalt and others have called out Africa and the MENA region in their emerging markets growth strategies in recent months.
U.S.-based Reservoir Media is one of the most vocal companies about the opportunity it sees in the Middle East and Africa. With its partner, the United Arab Emirates-based independent music company PopArabia, Reservoir recently bought the Egyptian label 100COPIES, the Lebanese label and music publisher Voice of Beirut, and signed publishing deals with Egyptian rapper and singer Mohamed Ramadan, Lebanese indie singer songwriter Zeid Hamdan and Moroccan hip-hop star 7liwa.
On a recent call with investors to discuss Reservoir’s earnings, the company’s founder and chief executive Golnar Khosrowshahi said emerging markets investments are a key part of the company’s diversification strategy.
“The thing about the emerging markets is that we could do high-volume deals, but at significantly lower price tags than what we do in Europe … North America, etcetera.,” Khosrowshahi said.
Outgoing Warner Music Group CEO Stephen Cooper said in September that Warner’s share in the Africa and MENA markets has grown from 10% to 30% in recent years through partnerships with record labels and distribution companies, and it aims to continuing investing in the region.
“Great content, great entertainers, great storytelling is starting to transcend language, and there’s a recognition that the next global chart-topping songwriter can come from anywhere in the world,” says Aaron Siegel, Goldman Sachs global head of entertainment investment banking. “That is a theme that major labels and publishing companies are willing to bet on.”