Who Owns the Play? Why Africa Needs Its Own Music Metadata Registry

Let me start with a simple truth: African music is winning — but African artists are still losing. Not because the talent isn’t there. Not because the music isn’t good enough. But because of data. Yes, data… that boring thing nobody wants to talk about. But here’s the twist: it might be the most important conversation our industry needs right now.

What is metadata, and why is it important?

Think of metadata as the ID document of a song. It’s the information that says who created the track, who wrote it, who produced it, who owns which percentages, and who must be paid when it plays somewhere. If the metadata is missing or wrong, the money has no idea where to go — it’s like having a bank account with no name attached.

Metadata is the reason a song you made in Mthatha gets (or doesn’t get) paid for when it plays on radio in Lagos, streams in New York, or appears in a TikTok video in Nairobi. In simple terms:
No correct metadata = no correct royalties.
No correct royalties = African artists working for free.

Examples of music metadata:

Metadata covers everything that identifies a song, explains who contributed to it, and ensures that the right people get paid.

It starts with basic song information like the title, the artist’s name, the album, the release date, genre and even the language. Then comes the recording information: who produced it, mixed it, mastered it, which studio recorded it, and the unique ISRC code that identifies that specific recording.

There is also licensing metadata — the type of license granted, how long it lasts, which territory it covers and who the client is. And finally, there is usage data, which tracks how a song performs: how many streams it gets, where those streams come from, radio spins, TikTok usage, YouTube views, and the exact time and date the song was used. This last category is especially crucial for royalty payouts.

Metadata may sound like admin, but it is literally the foundation of an artist’s income.

What is a music metadata registry?

A music data registry is a system or database that stores, verifies, and manages the official information (metadata) about songs, recordings, and rights holders. These registries help ensure creators get paid correctly.

Here are clear, real-world examples of music data registries:

• ISWC Registry - The International Standard Musical Work Code registry stores information about musical works (composition and lyrics). It is managed by CISAC, which represents collecting societies worldwide (eg, SAMRO)
• ISRC Registry (IFPI) The International Standard Recording Code registry stores information about sound recordings. It is managed by IFPI, which represents the global recording industry. (eg, RiSA)
• U.S. Mechanical Licensing Collective (MLC) The MLC runs one of the most advanced music data registries in the world. It stores ownership data for songs played on streaming services, pays mechanical royalties directly to songwriters/publishers and provides a public database of music rights

What are the problems with our current metadata in Africa?

Where do we even begin? The issues start right at the creation stage. Many African artists don’t have proper split sheets, don’t use standard identifiers, submit data in different formats, miss essential fields or rely on WhatsApp voice notes instead of proper documentation. Before the song even leaves the continent, the metadata is already broken.

Then it enters collecting societies that are often working with outdated or underfunded systems. Many are still dealing with manual data entry, mismatched records, legacy databases, and systems that don’t communicate across countries. The result is predictable: unallocated royalties pile up. Payments get delayed. Some never arrive at all.

But the biggest shock is this: African music data is stored, processed and monetised mostly outside Africa.This means Africa is exporting cultural data for free, while foreign entities gain insights, profit from the patterns, and set the standards — leaving Africa with less leverage, less bargaining power, and fewer ways to correct errors. It’s like sending your ID book overseas and hoping someone will “try their best” to manage your affairs.

Foreign DSPs Prioritise Western Catalogues

Let’s be honest about something: Spotify, Apple Music, Amazon Music, TikTok and other global platforms were not built with African naming conventions, spellings, languages, or musical structures in mind. So our music gets miscredited, misfiled and sometimes lost entirely.

African names get duplicated. Traditional genres get shoved into generic categories. Rights owners get mismatched. Songs get rejected because the system simply doesn’t recognise the metadata format.

It’s not discrimination — it’s design.
They built global platforms around Western data standards, not ours. And until Africa has a voice in that design, we’ll keep dealing with the same problems: songs that blow up globally while the creators never see the money.

Why we need African-owned metadata systems (and why now?)

Because we can’t afford not to.

Owning our own metadata means African artists finally get paid accurately, without the excuse of “unmatched royalties.” It means African insights stay in Africa instead of being exported for free. It gives the continent bargaining power — because whoever owns the data owns the conversation.

A shared African metadata system would also give music organisations, CMOs, publishers and labels one single source of truth instead of scattered spreadsheets. And more importantly, it would unlock a new wave of African music-tech innovations: royalty dashboards, local DSPs, AI tools trained on African catalogues, and smarter rights-management platforms.

Right now, Africa is building on platforms that weren’t built for it. A continental registry would change that.

The bottom line

Africa is overflowing with talent — but talent alone won’t build a sustainable music industry. Ownership will. Accuracy will. Infrastructure will.

We love celebrating Afrobeats going global, Amapiano dominating TikTok, East African pop rising and Southern African folk traditions travelling the world. But here’s the uncomfortable question:

If the world is finally listening to Africa’s music… why is Africa not the one managing the data behind it?

And even deeper: What happens to African music in the next 10 years if we still don’t own the metadata — the information that determines who gets credited, who gets paid and who gets remembered?

Because at the end of the day, the real question isn’t just: Who owns the song?
It’s: Who owns the play?

And until Africa can answer that confidently, the work isn’t done.