Warner Music Africa MD Temi Adeniji, whose company now owns the entirety of Africori. Photo Credit: WMG
Why stop at majority ownership? Nearly three years after acquiring a controlling stake in Africori, Warner Music Group (WMG) officially owns the entirety of the African music company.
WMG, having first invested in Africori about half a decade ago, confirmed as much via a formal release this evening. While the industry has experienced more than a few changes during the past five years, the focus on Africa’s quick-developing music markets (though perhaps more dialed in than ever) has been a constant.
Following its initial Africori investment, Warner Music secured the aforesaid majority interest in early 2022. Now, having moved in June 2024 to “supercharge” its purchase efforts, WMG “has completed its full acquisition of Africori.”
Moving forward, the 16-year-old distributor and artist services provider is expected to continue operating independently as a Warner Music subsidiary. And Africori founder Yoel Kenan will remain aboard as CEO, reporting to Warner Music Africa managing director Temi Adeniji.
The involved companies opted against disclosing the transaction’s financials – but related information may come to light in publicly traded Warner Music’s future earnings reports.
More immediately, the businesses did confirm that they’d “aligned their systems to allow Africori artists and songs to be upstreamed into the global Warner Music network.”
All told, Africori is said to boast north of 7,000 indie-artist users; to this point in 2025, these professionals have charted with works including but not limited to “Sdakiwe Sbali,” “Ndsize,” and “Vuka.”
In a statement, Warner Music Africa’s previously mentioned MD, Temi Adeniji, touted the buyout as “a landmark moment” for the major’s presence in Africa.
“Over the past four years,” continued the nearly nine-year Warner Music exec Adeniji, “we’ve shown that proper investment, synergies and cooperation have created value for artists, but also that Warner Music has helped energize and nurture the entrepreneurial spirit of a local partner.
“We’ve upstreamed Africori artists and plugged them into our global network, delivering international remixes and trend-driven cross-collaborations that have helped elevate their careers,” the higher-up concluded.
Throughout the remainder of 2025 and especially in the approaching years, it’ll be worth monitoring Africori’s commercial results. Regional streaming upstars like Mdundo are eyeing aggressive growth targets (other services, however, are encountering operational hurdles), and all manner of well-entrenched industry players are expanding in the continent.
Besides WMG itself, those players include the Quicket owner Live Nation (which in November 2024 unveiled a sizable South African investment), Mavin Global majority stakeholder Universal Music, and Yamaha, which is partnered with Audiomack. The latter finalized an expanded Warner Music partnership deal earlier in February.
Mergers and Acquisitions, Music Industry News
This post was originally authored and published by Dylan Smith Digital Music News via RSS Feed. Join today to get your news feed on Nationwide Report®.
