Midem music market is coming to Africa

The Midem African Music Forum will be held for the first time this year and intends to develop knowledge sharing and professional training as well as enable the export and discovery of new talent.

Midem said the four Africa dates would serve as a build-up to the main event in France. Midem is also planning to host the main conference for the first time on African soil in 2019.

The one-day Africa forums will host workshops, networking and music showcases as well as two panel discussions around the topics of value chains and building connections to allow music to travel. Midem is partnering with TRACE for the events.

"Despite their tremendous influence on music genres across the world, most African countries are not yet significant markets in the international music industry. In total, they represent less than 2% of the global music market," Midem said in a statement.

South African DJ and producer Black Coffee will be one of the keynote speakers at Midem in France while Nigerian singer Yemi Alade has endorsed the event and will be speaking at the forum and main event.

“It is such an exciting time to be an artist and especially in Africa, where there are so many talented and creative musicians who are breaking boundaries and whose music travels throughout the world," she said.

“However, there are still many challenges. To take it to the next level we need to come together and work on strengthening and structuring our music business in Africa.

"I’m very pleased to be part of the Midem African Forum and hope that sharing my experience as an artist will highlight the immense opportunities for African artists, not only on the content but globally.”

Trace CEO Olivier Laouchez said: "By partnering with Midem on the African Forum, we bring together Midem’s power as an international music business acceleration platform, with our expertise in Afro-urban music, along with our local knowledge and excellent relationship with our subscribers in Africa, at the service of promoting African talent and providing creative solutions to improve its local and international development.”

The Midem African Music Forum dates are as follows:

• Johannesburg, South Africa, on 4 April
• Lagos, Nigeria, on 6 April
• Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire, on 9 April
• Brazzaville, Republic of the Congo, on 12 April

For more information, visit the Midem official website.