Warner Music Group (WMG) has purchased a major stake in Africori, an African digital music distribution, music rights management, and artist development company, in a move that could position Warner as Africa’s top music distributor, allowing African musicians to tap into the global music market and success.
WMG invested in Africori for the first time in early 2020. WMG had access to Africa’s largest catalogue and A&R network as part of the original arrangement, which also allowed WMG to establish a presence in numerous African markets for the first time.
Africori is currently servicing 7,000 artists and 850 clients including Nigerian artists like Shola Allyson, Harrysong, and South Africa’s Sho Madjozi and Master KG of the 2020 global sensation ‘Jerusalema.’ last year its artists generated hundreds of millions of audio streams, billions of YouTube views, and the company recorded strong revenue growth across all major Digital Signal Processors (DSPs).
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“Since partnering with Africori, we have built a collaborative and strategic partnership that has resulted in some outstanding outcomes on a global level,” Alfonso Perez-Soto, President, Warner Recorded Music, said. Yoel Kenan and his team have done an incredible job building a company that is a real force in Africa, and we believe that by bringing them into the Warner Music ecosystem, by bringing them into Warner Music ecosystem, we believe we can give them deeper support as we aim to take African music even more global.”
Temi Adeniji, Managing Director of Warner Music South Africa adds: “With Master KG, we worked closely with the Africori team to take a local hit and connect it with people around the world. This new deal positions us as Africa’s leading distributor and I’m confident that in joining forces, Warner Music South Africa will be in a great position to deliver more wins like ‘Jerusalema’ in the future,”
“African music is booming all around the world and some of our artists are right at the heart of the explosion,” Yoel Kenan CEO of Africori said. “ Through our partnership, Warner Music has proven that it is the perfect home for Africori and our artists going forward. I’m looking forward to continuing to work with them as we break more artists on a global scale,” he concludes.
This is WMG’s most recent investment in Africa, following collaborations and agreements with M.I.’s Chocolate City, Diamond Platnumz’s WCB-Wasafi, Coleske, and Ziiki Media in recent years.
