Africa, next frontier in music – Canon

Canon has said that Africa is the next frontier in music.

This was made known in the second session of Canon’s African Frontiers of Innovation series, involving Kenyan journalist, Victoria Rubadiri; Egyptian singer/ songwriter, Malak El Husseiny; and General Manager of Boomplay, Tanzania Natasha Stambulia.

Corporate Communications and Marketing Services Director for Canon Middle East and Canon Central and North Africa, Mai Youssef, said, “African musicians are upping the ante by not only positioning themselves as original artistes, but also creating a space of mutual learning and exchange of concepts with their global counterparts.

“Where else can one find such a diverse range of genres and sounds, all weaved into a continent of untapped potential,” said Youssef.

Husseiny, whose album release was halted last year due to the pandemic, said, “It’s amazing what can come out of survival mode – you find so many creative ways to create and promote your music.

“In my case, for example: instead of just shooting a video as per normal, I now collaborate with 3D visual artists and bring these songs to life. We found a lot of opportunity in the challenges.”

Stambuli observed that, “Artistes have now experienced the best of both worlds, offline and online, and they can utilise all their learnings to improve and improvise even further – and we, music lovers, can appreciate them even more because we now understand more of their struggles.

“Nigerian artistes have pushed the envelope in streaming because they understand how the streaming business works and how to get the most out of an app – and this raises the issue of education in the music business. Artistes also need help in terms of regulations to help protect copyright on their work and ensure they get royalties.”