Africori on Africa’s dance music takeover: “It’s not just African music anymore, it’s global”

Headliner touched down in Ibiza for this year’s International Music Summit (IMS), diving headfirst into three high-energy days (and nights) packed with insights, beats, and the ideas shaping the future of electronic music.

The headline stat from IMS 2024? The global electronic music industry grew by 6%, hitting a massive $12.9 billion valuation. Genres like Afro House, Drum & Bass, and Minimal/Deep Tech are no longer niche – they’re rapidly rising, with all signs suggesting they’re on track to become the next wave of mainstream sounds.

Africa’s electronic and dance music scene, in particular, is bursting with energy and innovation. From the hypnotic rhythms of Amapiano to the deep pulse of Afro House, the continent’s sonic output is as diverse as it is dynamic. Africori – recently acquired by Warner Music Group – has been instrumental in spotlighting this creativity, especially within the electronic and dance spaces.

One standout session at IMS, titled ‘Africa Is Not A Country – The Growth Of Electronic Music Across The Continent’, tackled these themes head-on. Adam Tiran, Director of Operations at Africori, joined the panel to shed light on the continent’s rich and varied electronic music landscape.

Before the panel discussion and the Africori rooftop showcase, Headliner grabbed a coffee with Tiran to discuss the global appetite for African dance music, how genres like Amapiano and Afro House are no longer niche, and how African artists are finally being recognised as part of global genres like pop, R&B, and electronic – not just boxed in as “African music”.

Africori has played a huge role in shaping Africa’s music landscape, especially in the dance and electronic space. From your perspective, what makes Africa such a rich breeding ground for unique dance sounds right now?

It's a big question. It's impossible to ignore it. It is everywhere you move in South Africa. There’s so many reasons why dance is so important on the continent. It's a form of language, essentially. It's a form of history. 

Dance has always been a huge part of African music generally. And now, we’re seeing the dominance of dance music in its different forms. You've got the Amapiano space, which has been doing really well for the last few years, locally and internationally. 

Then there's the Afro House space, which is coming up and making a big re-entry into the international market.

It's culturally so important. But at the same time, it's been something that has developed through a lot of genres over the years. Amapiano is a reinterpretation of Kwaito, which was born in the ‘90s in post apartheid South Africa, which itself was inspired by house music from the US and Italy, slowed down, with local vernacular raps on top of it. 

Music is all cyclical, but in terms of the way that people vibe, it's dance, rhythm and percussion, and particularly in South Africa, there’s a lot of soul. All of that feeds into a beautiful fusion. There are constantly new genres being created. It's extremely innovative. It’s special.

Since Warner Music Group’s full acquisition of Africori this year, what new opportunities have opened up for African artists on the global stage?

Since we started working with Warner Music, there've been many new opportunities that we've started to step into. One of the biggest benefits has been interacting with the international teams. We have been working extremely closely with the emerging markets team, which is a bloc which Africa has typically fallen under. 

But more than that, Warner Music understands the global context of trying to take music from emerging spaces and putting it into the broader international market. That's been fruitful. We had this dream of taking African music to the world, and before Warner Music, we were doing it by ourselves.

Now, we have this broader network that we can tap into to make these things happen, which has been really helpful. In terms of the records and the signing of artists, we've upstreamed records through the Warner Music system. 

The first one was Jerusalema by Master KG and Nomcebo Zikode, which was a big global hit in 2020, and is still one of the biggest African songs of all time.

Amapiano has been having, and is continuing to have, a moment. There is a global appetite for what is coming from Africa, and a general recognition that there is so much talent on the continent, whether it's in the dance music world or if it's R&B. 

I've been with Africori from the beginning, and for the longest time, our mission was to give African music the respect and recognition that it deserves on the global stage. Now I feel like we're in a place where we are breaking out of it being just ‘African music’, and it's now just dance music, or it's R&B, or hip hop. Personally, that's really important, because the categorisations are a little bit loaded.

How so?

It's two-pronged. It's definitely national pride, or international pride, that makes us say, ‘This is African music, this is our culture.’ It's also a bit of a resistance to something being blocked before, but it feels like it's starting to get unlocked now. 

If you look at Burna Boy, who's a global star now, or Tyla, they were originally put in that African box, until they managed to establish themselves on the global stage and are considered pop stars.

How do you determine when artists move beyond being categorised solely as 'African music' and enter a different classification?

It's such a good question. There are certain types of artists that can achieve that kind of notoriety, from Africa or anywhere. They're called pop artists now. 

What's exciting to see while we're in Ibiza is that Afro House is such a massive sound in the dance music world right now. What we're trying to do is put a South African footprint on the island and give it some local agency.

Africori represents an incredible ecosystem of artists. How does the team approach marketing for such a broad and diverse roster, especially in genres as fast-moving as dance and electronic music?

The catalogue is quite big. We've been developing it for a long time. We're a distributor first, so we deal with a lot of volume. Distribution is akin to being an incubation centre. It’s about finding talent at early stages and working it digitally, getting things out there, and developing those brands and songs. 

The marketing is primarily retail first (playlisting, DSP relations), but we have different deals that allow us to be more involved in the marketing efforts, guiding our clients. It also extends to A&R, and helping our clients connect with other artists in new markets, producers, writers and more.

We have all sorts of different structures that we offer in terms of providing more extensive marketing support. Usually, a lot of that is dealing with the agencies and the Warner Music teams. It's an ever-evolving thing. 

There's so much great music coming out from South Africa, West Africa, and East Africa every week, and it’s a really exciting place to be in. We want to be involved in as many success stories as possible, while always focusing on making a real and considerable impact for the artists we sign.

Africa’s electronic and dance scene is so diverse, from Amapiano and Afro House and beyond. Which movements or micro-genres do you feel are pushing boundaries and shaping the future right now?

Afro House is the key thing to look at. We've been talking about Amapiano a lot the last few years, and have had some moments internationally. Afro House is starting to contest it. 

Some of our biggest records this year in South Africa have been from that sound. It's great to see these emerging genres competing with each other in different spaces, but also fusing into one.

Many DJs and producers from Europe, America, and South America are playing and making this sound now, and it's something that's been in Ibiza for many years. It's come full circle. It's really important that we have a lot of South African artists having their moment to drop these records. 

Afro House is a fascinating, longer-running genre than Amapiano, but it's now in its second phase. I find that exciting because usually when a genre comes back again, it means the infrastructure and the foundations of it were formed enough for it to reemerge. 

In South Africa right now, if you step into a club, you'll hear Amapiano and 3-Step Afro House all under the same banner – all fusing into one another. That is kind of unheard of. 

There’s a lot of innovation going on in the genres; it’s incredibly fertile. They are categorised and quite clearly are defined cultures; however, they are all merging as well. It's exciting.

How important is it for you to ensure African dance music retains its cultural identity as it scales globally?

I feel strongly that it should always have some kind of local engagement, but it is a real sign of respect and growth when the world starts to co-opt a sound. 

There's so much historical reasoning as to why Africans would be more protective of their sounds than others, because before, things were not given the recognition they deserved. So, they're highly protective, especially in South Africa. 

I believe you have to be the one to take your culture to the world. You can't just wait for it to come to you.

That's what we're trying to do with the showcase in Ibiza: to take people so that they can make connections, play shows, get studio sessions, and stamp their identity on this thing. It's really important. 

The fact that Adam Port released one of the biggest dance songs of the year last year with a complete Afro House sound established that movement amongst people who have never heard of the original Afro House. 

It's a great thing. There should be a lot of collaboration throughout that entire process. Those guys are working with many artists in South Africa. So it's happening, it just needs to be constantly kept in mind.

Platforms like TikTok have been a huge amplifier for African tracks, especially dance-led ones. How have you seen social platforms shape the way African artists break into international markets?

Certainly, the way that the songs break is on TikTok. With Amapiano, it's been the number one driver. For Afro House, it’s not quite as much. 

Amapiano is more dance-driven as it’s tied into dance challenges and culture. TikTok has been key for that. Especially during COVID, some key dance challenges popped up and took over, and that is a way for them to enter new markets, because dance is a form of internationalisation; it's a way of connecting with the music. You might not understand the lyrics, but you get the movement.

Afro House is a little different. The way tracks are picked up typically is more down to live shows, and seeing DJ sets and those performances of crowds in Tulum of 15,000 people. 

There are things that you need to translate to the broader international market. For Afro House, the palette is a little bit more diverse in terms of where it can grow. You can do it through IG. You can do it through PR. You can do it through shows.

With Warner Music’s global resources now fully behind Africori, what’s your vision for the next chapter, both for the company and for African dance music as a whole?

Doing projects like the showcase at IMS is extremely important. What a distributor is these days is a bit of a blank canvas, but we've always operated with the spirit of a record label, where we're heavily involved in the culture and creation. 

We were doing it, and now Warner Music is helping us do it more. I would personally love to see us carry on this expansion of the mission to the rest of the world. It's Ibiza now; it could be South America next year. It could be Japan. 

I strongly believe that if we're not on the ground spreading that word, then it's quite difficult to do so. The artists are travelling, so as executives, we should also be on the move and helping form those relationships. We're constantly working on new deals with artists and labels all over the region, not purely in dance music, and there's some exciting stuff in the pipeline.

We think about how we're doing in each market. Those sorts of things are considerations for us. It's all about having those global hits and finding records that are going to resonate at home first, and then build out from that local audience into something international. 

That's always the goal. Those are the records that can change the fortune of the business and can impact everybody else that we work with. There's a lot of development work that we want to do with artists as well. So, we’re continuing to keep the net broad, because there's so much music and so many amazing artists coming out of there. That's the key.

Why are events like the Africori showcase held during IMS important as part of Warner Music’s wider strategy?

It’s a collaborative project that is a continuation of a remix project that we did with Warner Music, where we were taking classic house music records and having them remixed into Amapiano by South African artists. 

We worked closely with Armada Records on that, and we got to a point where we felt we really wanted to bring those two worlds together. This collaborative event with Homecoming, Africori and Warner Music is a way for these artists to connect with the island.

Comment from Sfarzo Rtee, a DJ who performed at the Africori showcase at The Standard in Ibiza:

Working with Africori has been an incredible experience – the team are deeply passionate about amplifying African music on the world stage, and it's a really collaborative relationship. 

Their support has been instrumental in bringing my music to new audiences, and this IMS show was a big moment for me.

African and specifically South African electronic music is more fertile and more active than ever right now – whether it's Amapiano, Afro house or 3-Step, you can't deny us any more.