Universal Music Group (UMG), the global leader in the music industry, announced in 2018 that it would be expanding its activities in French-speaking Africa by creating a new division of the group dedicated to the label's activities in Côte d'Ivoire.
The Universal group chose to set up the offices of this new division, now headed by Franck Kacou, in the Ivorian economic capital, Abidjan. He now oversees the label's activities in 22 African countries, including Benin, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Cameroon, Cape Verde, Comoros, Côte d'Ivoire, Djibouti, Gabon, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Equatorial Guinea, Madagascar, Mali, Niger, the Central African Republic, the Democratic Republic of Congo (Kinshasa), the Republic of Congo (Brazzaville), São Tomé and Príncipe, Senegal, Seychelles, Chad, and Togo.
Today, Universal Music Africa is taking its first steps in Madagascar thanks to the signing of a strategic partnership with Manoova, a Madagascan content publisher and aggregator, and Virgin Music Label & Artist Services, a division of the global UMG network.
Universal Music Africa will be responsible for the digital distribution and promotion of Madagascan musical heritage. This partnership also provides for the deployment of Digster Africa in Madagascar. Digster Africa is the music playlist streaming service created and developed by Universal Music Africa, launched in 2016.
It should be noted that Universal Music's ambition on the continent is to discover and promote new talent and build a lucrative African market for artists.
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