Music Business News: Ghana

Warner launches OUT OF ORDER, an emerging markets-focused record label led by Selina Chowdhury

Label will highlight music from regions including Africa, India, the Middle East, Southeastern Europe and the Eastern Mediterranean

African music service Mdundo’s monthly active users reach 21.5m, up 107% YoY

Mdundo has published its quarterly report for calendar Q3 2022

Kobalt to launch NFT collection, becoming ‘first global music publisher to release a set of fully licensed direct-to-fan NFTs’

Music lyric NFT collection is called An Electro Revival, in collaboration with Ghanaian visual artist, Afroscope

As new Shazam charts launch in 17 countries including Nigeria and Ghana, Apple Music hails app’s role in discovery of African music globally

Shazam was acquired by Apple for $400 million in 2018

Universal Music Group strikes licensing deal with African music service Mdundo

Mdundo reports to have 17 million active monthly users across Africa

Ghanaian superstar Stonebwoy signs global Def Jam deal with Universal

Artist to work with Def Jam Recordings in the US, Def Jam Africa across Africa and 0207 Def Jam in the UK

Kobalt founder Willard Ahdritz invests in $200m fund set up to back African tech start-ups

The fund's founding parter is Niklas Adalberth’s non-profit Norrsken Foundation

Music service Boomplay and Merlin expand licensing deal to 47 countries across Africa

Boomplay has over 60m Monthly Active Users and a catalog of over 65m tracks