#HowWeListen Live: In Conversation with Obinna Agwu (A&R Executive: Horus Music, Nigeria)
‘Signing, Releasing & Developing Music from Africa to the World‘
Tuesday, April 25th: 12pm ET / 5pm BST & West Africa Time (WAT)
Live online via Zoom
Free registration here: https://byta.co/hwl-live-obinna-agwu
Our next guest is the newly appointed A&R Executive at Horus Music Nigeria, Obinna Agwu. A&R, artiste manager and music business consultant with years of experience working in the Nigerian music industry. Obinna is experienced in working closely with a variety of industry partners and managing internal/external relationships. He also hosts a music industry-based podcast known as The Listening Sessions Podcast.
Prior to joining Horus Music, Obinna worked at Boomplay as their Artiste Relations Manager, executing over twenty major releases and securing top talents like ILLBliss, Laycon, Hotyce and Ugochee for Boomplay’s Hip-Hop initiative, “Pass The Mic”. Obinna also oversaw planning and rollout for El Dee The Don’s ‘Undeniable’ whilst working at Trybe Records, and while at the Chocolate City record label (generally regarded as one of the most successful indigenous urban record labels in Africa) he oversaw the Plantation Boiz’s Plan B album, And The Bass is Queen by Lindsey Abudei, M.I Abaga’s debut album ‘Talk About It’, and many other projects.
UK-based music distributor Horus Music expanded its business operations to Africa in 2021, establishing itself within this market with a prominent Nigerian office in Lagos.
#HowWeListen Live: In Conversation is a monthly online event that will be presented in two parts:
- A workshop: Tips & insights for tomorrow’s artists & music industry leaders with Byta founder Marc Brown.
- An in-depth conversation with Obinna Agwu about finding, developing and launching new music from Africa to Africa & the world.
Free registration here: https://byta.co/hwl-live-obinna-agwu
About the Event
This series is designed to deliver the knowledge to enable tomorrow’s artists and industry leaders to better manoeuvre their way through the music ecosystem. Providing fun and insightful Q&A along the way!
#HowWeListen Live: In Conversation is hosted by Byta’s founder, Marc Brown, whose deep music business background and digital audio knowledge have helped him deliver unique insights to audiences from Tallinn to Toronto. Marc is a former label owner, A&R, manager and radio plugger.
Key takeaways:
- How does A&R work today?
- What does an artist need to have in place to be signed
- What are the exciting areas to watch in African music today?
- How does an artist go from local to global?
- How do collaborations help build a musician’s career
- How have Boomplay and DSPs affected the African Music ecosystem
- What are the key music markets in Africa and why?
- How did Afrobeats get so big?
Free registration here: https://byta.co/hwl-live-obinna-agwu
Event Format
#HowWeListen Live (part 1):
The workshop will introduce industry insights that Marc has picked up from his work in A&R departments, running his own radio promotion company, plus years of experience managing artists and significant large-scale projects. Some of the topics he will touch on include artists’ teams, timelines and connecting the web of the music industry. Plus, most importantly, tips on what you can do yourself to better increase the chances of your success.
#HowWeListen In Conversation (part 2): Each event features an in-depth one-to-one conversation. This time around we have the newly appointed A&R Executive at Horus Music Nigeria, Obinna Agwu. A&R, artiste manager and music business consultant with years of experience working in the African and Nigerian music ecosystem.
About Byta
Byta (“Bee-tah”: the Swedish word for exchange) is unrivalled in taking advantage of the unique properties found in audio files. By simplifying the reading and writing of file metadata, conversion of file formats and delivery of fast yet secure streaming, the platform enables everyone to send and receive digital audio in a clean, simple and secure way. Byta has also launched #HowWeListen, a not-for-profit organisation that complements the company’s ultimate goal: providing artists and their teams with the tools and knowledge needed to move their careers forward.
More about Mike Warner: As an educator, author, speaker, music executive and leader, Mike’s work has gained him recognition among his peers as the go-to authority at the forefront of the digital music world. An independent artist himself, Mike understands the challenges facing artists today better than anyone.
Australian-born Mike Warner is one of the leading experts in the world of streaming music. Mike has held many roles in music over the past 20 years. Currently, he is the Head of Editorial Marketing Partnerships, in North America, with global music distributor Believe. Prior to Believe he was the Director of Artist Relations at Chartmetric. Mike has shared his insights on many stages, from guest starring on numerous podcasts and appearing live on CNBC to speaking at the music industry’s largest conferences including SXSW, NAMM and ADE.
Based on the success of the first two editions of Work Hard Playlist Hard, Mike has expanded the world of WHPH into a full online blog workhardplaylisthard.com and a podcast series Streamline With Mike Warner. He also collaborated with industry friend Erika Parr to translate the book into Spanish, launching in mid-2023.
About Marc Brown
Marc is the founder of Byta / byta.com. Run as a distributed team across three continents, Byta enables sending and receiving of digital audio in a clean, simple and secure way. Built for everyone working with music today.
His extensive music business background and considerable digital audio knowledge have helped him deliver unique insights to audiences from Tallinn to Toronto.
Marc got his start at murderecords, Canada’s premier artist-owned label, during the mid-90s. After working in A&R at the legendary London indie, Creation Records, and then at Alan McGee’s Poptones, Marc started his own boutique UK radio promotion company off the back of his success with The Hives. For over ten years, Marc worked with an impressive list of indie rock luminaries, including Wilco, Bloc Party, Conor Oberst/Bright Eyes, Spoon, and Refused as well as legends such as Tom Waits, Yoko Ono, Booker T and Mavis Staples.
Marc currently lives and works in Stockholm, Sweden.
Free registration here: https://byta.co/hwl-live-mike-warner