Warner Music Group Fully Acquires Africori
Warner Music Group (WMG) announced Tuesday (Feb. 11) that it’s completed its full acquisition of Africori, one of Africa’s leading digital music distribution, rights management and label services companies.
Founded in 2009 in Johannesburg, South Africa, Africori touts itself as “one of the biggest independent songbooks in Africa,” including music by Kelvin Momo, Master KG (“Jerusalema”), Nkosazana Daughter, Oscar Mbo, TitoM & Yuppe (“Tshwala Bam”) and more than 7,000 artists. It will continue to operate as a standalone entity, and Yoel Kenan will remain as CEO, reporting to Temi Adeniji, managing director of Warner Music Africa. Africori and WMG have aligned their systems to allow Africori artists and songs to be upstreamed into the global WMG network.
“We’ve had an incredibly successful few years partnering with Temi Adenijii and Warner Music. From the beginning of the venture, our shared vision of connecting African music with fans from across the world was evident,” Kenan said in a statement. “The Africori team looks forward to working with the entire Warner Music family as we discover, develop and upstream the next generation of talent from across the continent.”
WMG first invested in Africori in 2020 in a deal that opened up the African continent to Warner Music by giving it access to Africori’s A&R network and first option on international licenses for all new signings, while Warner’s independent label services division ADA distributed and promoted Africori’s acts internationally through the company’s global network. WMG later acquired a majority stake in Africori in 2022, leading to its full acquisition this month.
“Today is a landmark moment in our evolution in Africa. Over the past four years, we’ve shown that proper investment, synergies and cooperation have created value for artists, but also that Warner Music has helped energize and nurture the entrepreneurial spirit of a local partner,” added Adeniji. “We’ve upstreamed Africori artists and plugged them into our global network, delivering international remixes and trend-driven cross-collaborations that have helped elevate their careers.”
Heran Mamo
Billboard
