Global music revenues reach $31.7 billion in 2025

The African Diaspora Investment Symposium kicks off this week in Santa Clara under the theme Bridging Africa & Silicon Valley: Shaping the Future of Innovation, Investment, and Inclusive Growth

We speak to Almaz Negash, the CEO of the African Diaspora Network, on why the symposium will be moving to Africa. 

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:04

Global music revenues grew to 31.7 billion US dollars in 2025. From over 2,376 cities and 178 countries, we're bringing the Good Morning Africa podcast. Good morning Africa. Welcome aboard your past on everything business in Africa and with the Dong. More follow us on Twitter at the K Financial News, and you can find me at Ruthadong. The African Diaspora Investment Symposium kicks off this week in Santa Clara under the theme Bridging Africa and Silicon Valley, shaping the future of innovation, investment, and inclusive growth. We speak to Almaz Nigash, CEO of the African Diaspora Network, on why the symposium will be moving to Africa.

SPEAKER_00 0:42

But traditionally, we've seen you hold um the investment symposium in in the US. And you know, this year it will still happen in the US, but we see you moving towards the African continent or the next.

SPEAKER_02 1:04

Well, no, that's a beautiful question. Uh let me uh share, this is very, very important. Um, bringing people together is a strategy in itself. It's in fact it's the best strategy. Uh, if I look at what what made us do this for the last 11 years is that we have seen over and over companies like Gabea, like Bio USA, and others come and make this amazing connections, and then you see them thrive. So the symposium uh in itself is actually a place where we see uh people come, uh form relationships, and then eventually build trust, and then it turns into action. There is no place where I have been a part of that we will uh build trust unless you uh have built that relationship first. And so ADN is in a way that space where we bring diverse people together and they get to see each other, they get to connect. Uh, we don't bring people to teach them, we bring them together so we can learn from each other. So it's a space where we learn from each other, where we uh you know forge some kind of uh friendship, and then eventually we see it turn into action. Um so it's for us, it's the um for ADN. Um, I say this to my team as much as I can, is that we're doing this not because it's an event. Addis is not an event, Addis is an experience. This symposium is an experience to be um to be had in a way that you don't really see this in other places. We're not hierarchical, it's very horizontal. People come connect with the people, the CEOs of a company, a student from any place can come and have that conversation with uh with a founder, with uh with a well-notable, uh amazing diasporas and French of Africa. So I think it's very important that we uh we set the frame. So for us, the symposium is an integral part of our strategy of mobilizing and activating the diaspora and then the French of Africa. What we have done over the last three years intentionally is that we started this in 2024 and we said, okay, we're gonna go beyond remittances when we approve when we launched our five-year strategy. Is that okay, we do the uh beyond remittances? Um what does that mean? Uh we created uh uh we when we launched the uh five-year strategy in 2024, we had a few things in mind, of which one of them was the going beyond remittances, and we made that a reality in 2025. We hosted the Beyond Remittances uh conference uh symposium in Washington, D.C. It was our 10-year anniversary. At that symposium, we launched the African Diaspora Innovation Fund. The fund is, and this comes all to turning relationships into action. The fund is actually a part of the Beyond Remittances. We cannot ask people to go beyond remittances when we also have um Builders of Africa's feature, one of our accelerator programs of the entrepreneurs and the startups based on the continent of Africa still need access to funding. And what our goal is to use the fund that we raise through the uh Africa Innovation, the uh African Diaspora Innovation Fund to fund the startups on the continent. We have a uh it's all on our website, people can take a look at it. And then we decided um the 2026 symposium will be a continuation of the Beyond Remittances, but we're gonna also really focus a lot on the scientific community engagement. We have uh a four-year partnership with the uh Gates Foundation to bring together African scientists with those um uh uh in Europe, uh, United States, and also uh uh Canada and connect them with the scientists on the continent of Africa. Why is this important? Because you you may know this, but there are more African uh scientists from uh Africa outside of Africa than in Africa. A lot of healthcare workers, doctors, and scientists. So our goal is to connect those in the US, Canada, and Europe with those on the continent of Africa. And this could be uh the connection is for vaccine and research and development, drug discover, drug discovery and pharmaconomics uh or pharmacy. So there's all kinds of different things that we believe we can do uh uh in collaboration with the diaspora. So this year you will have uh a session on AI, a session on the future of work is African, and of course a very, very robust session on science and uh the healthcare uh as a whole. So those are the things that are also we're gonna carry through um in 2027, uh, which we plan to host our symposium on the continent of Africa. We just don't know the country yet.

SPEAKER_01 6:23

Coco features hovered around$3,300 per ton, close to the lowest since August 2023, amid an improved supply outlook and evidence of ample supplies. Reports from West African farmers indicated that consistent rainfall had boosted cocoa pod development prospects in Côte d'Ivoire and Ghana. Earlier this month, both countries slashed the fixed farm gate price paid to cocoa farmers aiming to boost sales after global prices fell. Slowing global demand has accelerated cocoa stockpile accumulation, pushing key producers into crisis. In the meantime, latest data shows ICE cocoa inventories rose to a seven point to a 7.25 month high of 2.2 million bags by March 16th, reinforcing the scenario of greater availability. Nevertheless, dealers noted that part of this increase still reflects a cautious demand from the global industry. A fifth consecutive rate cut to mark the loose return to borrowing costs from the period before the Russian invasion of Ukraine triggered a global inflation shock. The cut contrasted slightly with the market consensus of a softer 100 basis points cut, reflecting policymakers' greater priority of addressing growth concerns despite upside risks to inflation. Headline inflation recently slowed to a 25-year log of 3.3% in February, but base effects and a surge in global energy prices triggered by the war in Persian Gulf are likely to trigger some traction in price growth. On the other hand, the surge in gold prices last year increased the foreign exchange influx into Ghana, limiting the pressure that the central bank faces to defend the city and adding some leeway to lower policy rates. Global recorded music revenues grew by 6.4% to reach 31.7 billion US dollars in 2025, marking the 11th consecutive year of expansion. This is according to the 2026 Global Music Report released by the International Federation of Phonographic Industry. The report highlights sustained growth across all regions, driven largely by increased adoption of paid music streaming services and continued investment by record companies in artists and innovation. Streaming remains the dominant revenue source for the global music industry. Total streaming revenues exceeded$22 billion in 2025, accounting for 69.6% of the global recorded music income. Paid subscription streaming alone grew by 8.8% and contributed 52.4% of the total revenues, reinforcing its position as the industry's main growth engine. Commenting on the report, the IFPI CEO Victoria Oakley said the industry's growth is being driven by strong collaboration between artists and recorded company and rec and record companies, alongside increased global demand for music. She noted that the continued expansion of paid streaming services is not only boosting revenues but also enabling reinvestment into diverse music communities worldwide. Oakley has emphasized, also emphasized the need for collective action to address industry challenges, particularly streaming fraud, which he described as a direct threat to the music ecosystem. Thank you for always waking up with us. Good morning, Africa as a product of the K Financial. If you have suggestions or one, check out more stories, visit the website atfinancial.com. Don't forget to subscribe, you can find us on all social media platforms at the K Financial, and you can find me atomic.