The global creative economy is valued at more than $56 billion, but unfortunately, the Africa music market is only valued at about $3 billion, which is only 2.9 percent of that value. While the fact that the African music industry as a whole only provides just about two million jobs for Africa with a population of over half a billion people is concerning, the fact that it has shown the highest digital music growth globally in the last 20 years shows that it has a lot of potential to develop even more.
This is why African professionals in the creative industry need to deliberately create initiatives that will take a futuristic approach in tapping into Africa’s human resources, an area where Africa’s advantage is starting to show, especially in a world where, according to a report, by 2035 almost 70 percent of the African population will be less than 25 years old and Africa will become the biggest labor market on the globe. If Africa gets its human resource development right, it will create a collective of talent that will develop the other huge potentials that Africa is blessed with.
To get it right for its creative industries, Africa must provide fertile ground for creatives, but more importantly, professionals who build the business environment that enables those creatives to derive economic value from their creativity.
With the kind of reception that African musicians have gotten all over the world in recent years, there is no doubt that organizations that have the financial resources are looking at African collaborations in order to bring fresh ideas from a young and vibrant population. Thus, African professionals in the music industry must start to think of how to take advantage of these partnerships in order to ensure that the value of the creative industry benefits the people who own the cultural experiences that the creatives draw from.
At Arts Connect Africa, we have noted that one of the resources that the African creative industry lacks is finance; thus, we are leveraging our networks for partnerships with organizations outside Africa that wish to finance valuable projects that will economically impact music professionals on the African continent. Furthermore, we also believe that the young population of Africa needs to be educated and brought up to speed on global best practices. Professionalism will help them to be exposed to more opportunities as global music professionals. Thirdly, we believe that cultural exchange projects are crucial in educating African music enthusiasts and making them better rounded and more creative, and thus we routinely encourage intra-continental and intercontinental collaborative projects between professionals and creatives.
Some of our members’ organizational projects have reflected their commitment to strategic partnerships. Prominent examples of these are Ckrowd Africa, a talent outsourcing platform that connects music professionals in Africa with organizations across the world that need such people. There is also the VISA For Music festival in Morroco, in which an organization like VISA is collaborating with Brahim El-Mazned, a festival organizer and culture promoter in Morocco. There is also the Stanbic Bank/Jacaranda Music Festival in Zimbabwe, where Stanbic Bank is collaborating with Walter Wanyanya, a festival organizer and culture promoter.
The results of the collaborations are already visible, and therefore they should prompt more responses at an institutional level, with governments also supporting to bring the professionalization of African music industries to reality. The future is bright for African music; that much is obvious, but there must be strategic partnerships between private companies and music professionals in order for African music to derive the value that it deserves from the global music business.
