After long-term challenges with widespread piracy and a widely
disparate radio and record industry, a burgeoning legitimate music scene
is fast emerging on the continent of Africa.
An expanding middle class, a fast-growing population with more than
65 percent under age 35, and digital startups helping to leapfrog
infrastructure weaknesses are making major African cities emerge as not
only sources of great local talent that can go global in a meaningful
way, but also markets and venues for U.S. and other global artists
touring and selling their music.
“Africa is the last big secret in the music world, and it’s just
about to blow up,” says Obi Asika, CEO of Lagos, Nigeria-based media and
entertainment company, Storm 360. “In South Africa and the associated
regions around southern Africa, [the business and music industry ] are
much more structured, more like the West.”
Universal, the world’s largest music company, encouraged by its
French media and telecommunications parent Vivendi, has been keeping an
eye on the fast-evolving markets in Africa and is starting to make some
moves there. Randall Abrahams, managing director of Universal Music
South Africa and sub-Saharan Africa, adds, “The African industry is an
extremely exciting and vibrant music marketplace right now.”
All of this portends good news — and visions of dollar signs — for a
beleaguered industry on the prowl for new revenue resources. Africa is
the world’s second-largest and second-most-populated continent with more
than 1 billion inhabitants.
With Apple’s iTunes store due to launch in Nigeria, South Africa,
Kenya and Ghana in 2013, Abrahams notes that the imminent arrival of
such digital platforms aligned with ongoing advances “by continental
collection agencies, means that the sub-Saharan territory along with
other emerging markets is a major source of growth for Universal”…
Read More: billboard.biz
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