By Rita Okoye
Determined to assist the African music market, encourage international business exchange, and discover new talent around the world, Midem, home to the global music community stormed Lagos – Nigeria to launch its high-potential Markets Programme tagged Midem African Forum.

The Midem African Forum took place on Friday 6 April 2018 at the prestisgious Intercontinental Hotel, Victoria Island, Lagos.

This was the Lagos chapter of its Four City African Road Show Tour, where it also visited Johannesburg, Abidjan, and Brazzaville . .

Working in partnership with Trace, SACEM, 6060 Music Group, Spotlight Management, and Cream Entertainment, the event saw music industry influencers, lawyers, venture capitalists, and government agencies come together to discuss the potential of Nigeria’s burgeoning music industry and the growth potential of African music within the wider international market. It also focused on the way forward for the African music industry, as it continues to grow and spread globally.

Kicking off the Forum were two thematic sessions that delved into the African music industry without boundaries.

The first panel moderated by Sam Onyemelukwe (MD Trace Nigeria), was themed, ‘Building connections to allow music to travel. It was an interactive session with panelist Ade Bantu (musician, activist and CEO Afropolitan vibes), Oye Akideinde (GM Operations, Boomplay ), Yoel Kenan (CEO Africori), Joel Hanson (OAP/ Media Executive, Upclose and Personal), and Eze Ezegozie (GM, Universal Music, Nigeria).

The panelists discussed the problems and challenges facing the African music scene’s touring industry, where Ade Bantu was of the opinion that these are exciting times for African music. Yoel Kenan identified the lack of infrastructure that restricts music from travelling .

He also noted that mobility funding remains a cancer in the progression of our sounds as only few artists had the financial ability to embark on tours across Africa.

On how to properly export our music globally, Eze Ezegozie harped on the need for skills transfer and suggested that Nigeria needed to fix its issues first before embarking on a pan african agenda.

The second panel moderated by Nosa Dag CEO 6060 Music Group, was themed  ‘Structuring the value chain to grow music business locally and globally’. It was more of a debate between some of the panelists, which included Mr Eghosa Omoigui (Managing General Partner EchoVC) and Taiye Aliyu (CEO Effizy Music Group), Akinyemi Ayinoluwa (Partner HighTowers Solicitors & Advocates), Chinedu Chukwuji (who represented Nigeria’s copyright collection society, COSON) and Akotchaye Okio, International Development Officer for Africa at SACEM (France copyright collection society).

Panelists on the second session focused on the need for structure and transparncy within our collection society, healthy engagements on intellectual property, copyright, rights of the artiste and prudent ways by which they can protect and generate income globally.

There was a debate on how best to capture data as an artist, with one school of thought relying on technology, while the other employed a more gorilla style of word of mouth.

Following the panel sessions a workshop was facilitated by Manon Jessua (Midem Conference Project Manager), Alain Bidjeck (Midem Project Manager), Oba Sijuade (Cream Entertainment), Steve Osagie (Spotlight Management), and Geoffroy De Rouge (Midem International Partnership and Sales Manager).

The workshop helped delegates find solutions to some of the problems highlighted during the panel discussions. This was followed by a networking cocktail reception hosted by Ciroc.

Bringing the Forum to a successful climax was a special evening Midem Music Showcase hosted and sponsored by The PGM Club Douglas Jekan and iKE Onuorah of ACI Entertainment. It featured performances from some of Nigeria’s brightest stars which included Mavin’s Poe, Dubie, Evelle, Yah Yah, GemStones, and Maka.

The epoch-making 4 city roadshow now leads to the annual 4-day grand finale in Cannes, France from 5th to 8th June, 2018.

Midem African Forum- Lagos was a great success