By Kayode Adebayo, Arts Connect Africa (ACA) Board Director and founder and Chief Executive of Ckrowd
Understanding Africa’s Music Landscape
The music scene across Africa is both diverse and dynamic, capturing a wide range of genres, from Afrobeats and Afro-jazz to reggae, hip-hop, and traditional folk music. This variety enriches the continent’s cultural landscape and has fueled its appeal globally. However, structural issues hamper the full realization of the industry’s potential. Limited local funding often forces musicians to rely on informal channels for support, while insufficient resources make it difficult for them to produce and distribute music at scale.
Even when their music reaches international markets, these artists face the additional challenge of inequitable revenue sharing on global platforms that prioritize wealthier regions, leaving them with a smaller share of their profits. To bridge this gap, creatives need the essential infrastructure—such as studios, technology, and marketing channels—as well as business professionals who have developed skills and training to support their craft.
Why Local Investment Matters
Investing in the music industry offers African countries a range of cultural and economic benefits. African music serves not only as entertainment but also as a historical archive and a platform for social commentary. When local governments support this industry, they nurture a cultural legacy while also fostering economic growth.
Supporting the music industry can also strengthen the tourism sector. Music festivals and concerts are major attractions, bringing visitors who are eager to experience Africa’s cultural scenes firsthand. Countries like Ghana, Nigeria, and South Africa already enjoy tourism linked to music. They are examples of how even the smallest efforts in bolstering local music industries could elevate African nations as global cultural hubs. In addition, with one of the youngest populations in the world, Africa can empower its youth by creating more job opportunities in music production, promotion, and event management. This investment in creative industries allows Africans to enter the workforce as artists, entrepreneurs, and cultural ambassadors.
Education and Skills Development
Governments and policymakers can partner with networks providing mentorship and education for professionals within their countries or regions who are interested in the music industry. This would enable professionals to develop global-level industry professional skills, earn from global opportunities, and become self-sufficient, ultimately contributing to the economy.
Funding Opportunities and Grants:
Policymakers can facilitate access to grants, crowdfunding, and financing programs tailored to creative projects. By directly supporting professionals and small music organizations, national and regional governments could nurture the growth of local creative industries and empower people with resources to succeed independently. More importantly, the number of professionals who get certified based on the program that the governments create or facilitate can help the governments to know how much fruit their effort is yielding.
Cultural Exchange and Identity Promotion:
One of the areas of education that the African music business is lacking is intra-continental education. Because of trade restrictions and migration bottlenecks, Africans simply don’t know enough about one another’s cultures. Therefore, the African music industry needs a network of professionals and a platform that will allow partners from different parts of the continent to initiate cultural exchanges and collaborations. We hope these cultural exchanges can help music industry business professionals and organizations alike share and learn about each other’s cultures. From a government and policy perspective, such interactions can strengthen regional unity and build a sense of shared identity, which is valuable for local pride and community empowerment.
One core mission that governments must pursue in the partnerships they forge would be cultural preservation. African music reflects an extraordinary diversity of languages, instruments, and storytelling traditions. By supporting traditional music alongside contemporary genres, governments can help support initiatives that would help preserve Africa’s rich musical heritage, ensuring that future generations can access and appreciate these art forms.
In addition to celebrating African identity, the academy would advocate for policy changes to ensure fair revenue-sharing systems and distribution deals that protect African musicians’ rights and contributions.
Learning from International Models of Success
African governments and cultural institutions can look to successful international models for guidance. South Korea’s government-supported K-pop industry is a powerful example of what’s possible when a nation actively promotes not just its cultural exports but professionals who drive value with those exports. By subsidizing talent development, talent agencies, and global distribution, South Korea has turned K-Pop into a billion-dollar industry.
Similarly, Jamaica’s government has supported reggae music through tourism and cultural initiatives, allowing the genre to flourish and become one of the country’s main cultural exports. Brazil, too, has created a music export office dedicated to connecting its musicians with international audiences—a model that could be adapted to meet the needs of African artists in various countries in Africa.
Government support would represent a transformative shift toward economic empowerment for African artists, positioning them to thrive in the global music landscape. This institution would not only provide a foundation for skills development and creative networking but also champion policies that ensure fair compensation. Such initiatives are vital for preserving Africa’s musical heritage, empowering music professionals, and establishing the infrastructure necessary for long-term industry growth.
Arts Connect Africa has been at the forefront of championing this vision. As a network, Arts Connect Africa members have discussions like ACA Industry Conversations where they identify issues around music education and providing infrastructure that the African music industry can tackle and also proffer solutions for governments to handle those issues.
