Before the pandemic, African music was bubbling over and gaining traction in the West. Artists such as Wizkid and Davido had already made a mark in cities such as London, Atlanta, and Melbourne. Major labels had started setting up shop on the continent with Sony Music hiring a general manager for West Africa and Warner announcing they would be opening an office in West Africa soon.
Source: Spieltimes
But when the lockdown came many in the industry believed that the lockdown could bring about a setback from redress all the progress that had been made pre-pandemic. However, the pandemic turned out to be a blessing in disguise for African music. Because everyone was at home locked in, down it allowed online music streams to boom. Many musicians in the West had their touring and live music income completely disappear overnight. As a result, they– now had to scramble to build their online following and go back to their DIY route that had been previously neglected.
African musicians on the other hand who have always had limited resources and had always relied on online resources to further their music and reach new audiences, took advantage of this. Social media and connecting with those in the diaspora were a core part of the marketing strategy. As opposed to taking a new route like their counterparts, scrambling to get back to this route and to dust everything off and re-learn their online marketing strategy – they just continued and even doubled down on their online marketing strategy.
Once the lockdown was lifted – these online gains were supplemented with higher demands for live touring dates and in-person shows.
This also meant the major labels believed that they were right in betting on Africa and so they doubled down and accelerated their return to Africa (many had offices on the Continent in the 60s, 70s, and 80s but had left – more on that later). Many, including us, here at Made In Africa Publishing HQ thought that these major labels would clean up shop and take over. Yet this has not happened.
The majors have failed to make the impact they had hoped – on the Continent labels such as Empire and Mavin (backed with a £10m investment from Kapanaga Capital). Similarly, budding as well as smaller setups such as Made In Africa Publishing and Sarz Academy have been having more of an impact on the continent than the majors. There could be several reasons for this:
RACIAL SENSITIVITY
The elephant in the room. Many of the major labels are headed up by white Western corporations. The imagery of white corporations invading Africa has obvious historical connotations.
But let’s not forget that during the pandemic, racial reckonings such as the Black Lives Matter/George Floyd incident as well as the End Sars movement also took place, mobilizing the diaspora to racial consciousness like never before.
RESTRICTIVE CONTRACTS
The major labels have been plagued for years with horror stories of slave-like restrictive contracts accusations from recent artists such as Megan Thee Stallion, Kanye West, and as far back as TLC, Michael Jackson, and more, etc. Many of the younger upcoming artists would rather avoid this and go for smaller labels that offer better terms or to explore newer business models that are fairer to both sides.
With the nature of these issues, one may question the possibility of international labels thriving in African spaces without some major intervention. Nonetheless, while we ponder on these, we must applaud the phenomenal work that has been born out of the collaboration between African record labels and African Musicians over the years.
