Main African music executives, Olamide (Founder/CEO, YBNL Nation), Temi Adeniji (Managing Director, Warner Music Africa), Ben Akinbola (Head of Progress, AWAL), and Franck-Alcide Kacou (CEO, Common Music Africa), have been named to Billboard’s prestigious 2025 International Energy Gamers record.
The annual record of Billboard International Energy Gamers celebrates trade leaders driving the music enterprise exterior the US, contributing to just about 60% of recorded-music income generated globally. It highlights these shaping artiste careers, forging worldwide partnerships, and increasing the attain of music throughout borders.
Nigerian rapper, Olamide, whose unbiased label YBNL Nation has performed a defining position in shaping Nigeria’s music panorama, mirrored on the label’s worldwide momentum in his interview with Billboard.
“YBNL Nation has made important strides in increasing our international footprint and solidifying our presence in key worldwide markets”, he stated. “Collaborations with worldwide artists and producers have helped bridge the hole between Afrobeats and different genres, additional establishing our label as a key participant within the international music scene.”
Based in 2012, Olamide’s label has served as a launchpad for a number of Nigerian recording artists, together with Adekunle Gold, Lil Kesh, Asake and Fireboy DML, amongst others.
Ben Akinbola’s work at AWAL provides a substitute for conventional labels by empowering artists to retain possession and management of their music whereas nonetheless benefiting from international assets.
Chatting with Billboard, Akinbola highlighted the corporate’s broadening international influence: “Final 12 months, marquee AWAL artistes like Jungle [in the United Kingdom] and The Seashores [in Canada]—winners of group of the 12 months honours on the BRIT Awards and Juno Awards, respectively—reached new heights of their careers internationally. Constructing off these worldwide successes, we now even have native artists charting on each inhabitable continent, with a presence on the bottom in over 15 markets”, he defined.
Temi Adeniji’s continued management at Warner Music Africa has seen the corporate spend money on localised expertise growth and regional infrastructure, serving to amplify African voices in international music circles. Over the previous 12 months, she has led important developments in Warner’s regional presence. This contains the launch of WMA Francophone in Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire, in addition to the profitable acquisition of Africori, a number one African music firm. These strikes are a part of a broader technique to consolidate Warner Music’s footprint on the continent and to supply complete help to artists throughout linguistic, genre-based, and regional divides.
Franck-Alcide Kacou, heading Common Music Africa, stays a central determine in increasing the label’s attain throughout Francophone and Anglophone Africa. He performs a number one position in creating inventive enterprise fashions for the African market and giving native expertise new alternatives.
Try the entire record of Billboard’s 2025 International Energy Gamers right here.