As the music business in Africa continues to heat up – both as a growing part of the business and a more important source of talent for a global market – new Sony Music France Managing Director Marie-Anne Robert has hired a new executive to run its business in French-speaking Africa.
On Nov. 8, Sony Music France Managing Director Many-Ann Robert shared with staff that she had appointed Elvis Adidiema as director of Sony Music French Speaking Africa. Adidiema, who will report to Robert, will be based between Paris and Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire.
Adidiema will oversee Sony’s music business operations in French-speaking Africa, with responsibility for both overseeing growth in the streaming market and finding and working with talent that Sony can market in the French-speaking world, and perhaps even worldwide.
“African artists have tremendously contributed to music all over the world,” Robert wrote in an email about the appointment, “and we have worked hard to ensure we have a local team that understands the cultural relevance and importance of this unique market and helps artists to amplify their talent.”
(Adidiema is responsible for French-speaking Africa, but not the countries of North Africa, which fall under another division.)
Adidiema is a French entrepreneur of Congolese heritage who founded the label Ouenze Music with Serge Ibaka and has managed artists including Innoss B, Ya Levis, and Hertier Wata. He worked worked at Trace TV, an African music channel, where he helped develop artists such as Joe Dwet File and Fally Ipupa. He has a masters degree in journalism from the École supérieure de journalisme de Paris.
