Music In Africa to join SACEM Conversations on 30 March

The two discussions, titled Economic Emancipation and Redistribution of Resources, will zoom in on the challenges facing the cultural and creative industries. The discussions, which fall under the September Summit initiated by the Africa2020 season, were originally scheduled for last year and will be broadcast live on Facebook.

The panels will bring together artists and professionals from the cultural sector to discuss how digital content is shared with a view to empower creators.

The Economic Emancipation conversation will be held in French and the moderator is Guild of Musicians delegate-general Suzanne Combo. Guest speakers will include Anoumabo Urban Music Festival producer and promoter Salif Traoré (Ivory Coast), musician and cultural entrepreneur Blick Bassy (Cameroon) and animation specialist Mounia Aram (Morocco).

The Redistribution of Resources conversation will be hosted by Music In Africa Foundation director Eddie Hatitye (South Africa) and feature Aristokrat Group CEO Piriye Isokrari (Nigeria), Tshimologong Precinct CEO Lesley Williams (South Africa) and IDOL CEO Pascal Bittard (France).

SACEM is a French-based non-profit professional organisation that collects and distributes royalties on behalf of authors, composers and music publishers from around the world.

“The African continent contributes to the vitality and dynamism of the music ecosystem,” it said. “SACEM is proud to represent the works of iconic creators of the African repertoire and to share its expertise in authors’ rights management, particularly on the digital end.”

SACEM Conversations are organised within the scope of the September Summit, which emphasises intellectual production and the transcendence of ideas through questioning the state of modern societies that resonate with France and the rest of the world.

The SACEM conversations will start at 10.30am and 2pm (GMT+2), respectively, and can be viewed on the SACEM and Music In Africa Facebook pages here and here.