Music  

At MusicBiz 2019, Boomplay’s Opeyemi woos Americans to invest in Africa

By Chuks Nwanne

18 May 2019   |   3:36 am

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Following a successful gathering of the brightest minds in the global music business scene, music business stakeholders, publishers, technology inventors, record label owners and musicians generally are set for a high paced year. This is as a result of all the insightful conversations, which took place at the Annual Music Business Conference on May 5,…

Iredumare Opeyemi (left), Uduak Oduok of Africamusiclaw.com, Anne Jenniskens of FUGA and Phil CHOI of Boomplay at the event.

Following a successful gathering of the brightest minds in the global music business scene, music business stakeholders, publishers, technology inventors, record label owners and musicians generally are set for a high paced year.

This is as a result of all the insightful conversations, which took place at the Annual Music Business Conference on May 5, 2019, in Nashville, USA.

The venue was intense as ideas, which could move the industry forward, filtered the air. From the most effective ways to monetize music in the streaming age, to effectively maximize use of stream data, signing lucrative record deals to earning more as artistes and executives in the creative industry, it was a loaded session.

Powered by American Music Business Association, the most respected music business executives such as Mitch Glazer, the CEO Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), Andy NG, Group VP, Tencent, Anne Jenniskens, Head of Licensing at Technology and services company, FUGA gathered to discuss and proffer solutions on the booming global music business market including conversations for professionals, who are willing to take the next bold steps as the disruptive exploitation of music redefines the music business.

On ground to represent the African music terrain and respond to participant at the conference was Opeyemi Iredumare, Lead team member (Legal and Business Affairs) for Transsnet Music Limited (Boomplay), who elaborated on the opportunities awaiting millions of creatives in the music business.

“Everybody thinks of Africa as a place but Africa is a continent, not just a country; Africa is growing and becoming interesting. At the same time, the purchasing power of an average African is growing because the Internet is enabling us to build businesses. Every African artiste cares so much about his creative control because for us music is cultural. If you come in and solve the problem for us, we will continue to deal with you, this is not based on contractual agreement; this is based on the fact that a lot of people do not want to put the foot to the ground in Africa.”

He noted that, “Like tourist in search of artifacts, everyone just wants to walk in an take what they can take, but if you come in and invest around the business, you are seen as a risk taker and because of that, you have the protection of the government and the stakeholders will support you. But if you are not going to solve problems or bring solutions, you are not ready to win,” Opeyemi said.

Consequently, the CEO Recording Industry Association of America, Mitch Glazer, in his keynote speech, also gave insights into the impact of the Music Industry in the entertainment sphere.

“The success of the the Music Modernization Act will impact everyone from streaming services to labels, to songwriters, but legislations only work where there are incentives on both sides of the table,” Glazer said

Iredumare Opeyemi is the Director of Legal and Business Affairs for Boomplay, Transsnet Music Limited’s content streaming platform. Opeyemi has spent the last three years facilitating enabling the company to facilitate multi-national deals and build sustainable business models around the music sectors in different respective market in Africa.