The African Music Library is celebrating its first anniversary, an event that marks the organization’s significant milestone in their journey to documenting and preserving Africa’s musical heritage. The event will take place on Friday, October 13th at Alliance Francaise, Ikoyi, a prominent center in Lagos known to host major cultural and creative events.
Founded in September 2022 by various music experts, the African Music Library (AML) is a non-profit organization empowering global communities with the richest and deepest knowledge of African music. AML is helping the music industry by compiling and providing free access to the most comprehensive resources about African music, such as musical credits, music knowledge, and metadata that helps everyone who’s interested in African musical culture find rich information for research, artist recognition, rights administration, business and recreation.
Over the past year, AML’s efforts have yielded profound impact in areas such as:
● Research and Knowledge Development – over 115 African genres fully documented
● Digitization – over 10,000 African songs digitized with no prior existence online
● Global Reach – 2 Million+ audiences reached in more than 50 countries through the
website, genre study programs, twitter space discussions, and weekly newsletters.
● Music Education – Through a program called Foster, AML partners with schools to
bring the gift of music education to children in underserved African communities. This
program has benefited many school children since inception.
● Artist Support – hosted four online showcase events for emerging talents from across
Africa
The anniversary event will celebrate the library’s past achievements, the journey ahead, and create an exciting atmosphere for music industry players and music enthusiasts alike to engage in a community dedicated to the advancement of African music. To commemorate both the organization and their incredible mission of documenting African music, the event will be replete with rich programming facilitated by the industry’s finest.
The evening will feature a keynote speech from Samuel “Samo” Onyemelukwe, Global Business Development Director of Trace S.A., as well as a panel entitled The Future of Documenting African Music, a conversation exploring how best to sustain the African music archive through the lens of leading industry players on the continent. Namely, the panel includes Clarence Peters, famed Nigerian video director and founder of CAPital Dream Pictures;
Ayomide Oriowo , Co-Founder of TurnTable Media; veteran Nigerian music executive Dr. Dayo ‘D1’ Adeneye, CEO of Primetime Entertainment; and Mukwae Wabei Siyolwe, writer, activist, and Director of Development of Peabody Award Winning organization Afropop Worldwide.
Performing live on the Alliance Francaise stage will be Kemuel, a burgeoning Afro-fusion act specializing in Afrobeats, R&B, and pop, who, relatively new to the scene, has already worked alongside the likes of Olamide and Spinall.
To top off the evening will be the launch of African Music Handbook for School Children, a child-friendly handbook designed to educate children about all things African music – the very basis of the curriculum of AML’s Foster program – an initiative providing quality music education to underprivileged African children.
“We are thrilled to be celebrating our one-year anniversary in grand style,” said Emmanuel Ogala, Co-founder and President of the AML. “We are grateful to all of our partners and supporters for helping us to achieve major milestones in our mission of preserving and promoting African music and culture.”
With support from leading Afro music-tech startup Josplay Inc, music-media powerhouse TRACE, and music distribution giant ONErpm, the African Music Library’s anniversary will not only present the African music industry with dynamic solutions to address gaps in the African music archive, but also work hand in hand with the entire industry to preserve and advance the continent’s musical heritage.
AML invites the public to join the event through a live broadcast on their YouTube channel @africanmusiclibrarymedia902, or go to the channel directly through this link.
Those who are able to attend live in Lagos will be invited to RSVP to the event.
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