Apple Music Expands Into 25 African Countries, Takes On China’s Boomplay
Apple Music has expanded into 25 African countries as it takes on China’s Boomplay, the largest music streaming service in Africa.
The digital music market in Africa is attracting global and local companies. Photo by Yingchou Han on Unsplash
In its biggest geographical expansion since 2012, Apple has launched its music audio streaming service in 25 additional African countries.
The expansion in streaming means that Apple Music is now available in 39 of Africa’s 54 countries.
Eight of the 25 countries — Cameroon, Ivory Coast, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Gabon, Libya, Morocco, Rwanda, and Zambia — now have access to the company’s App Store and Apple Podcasts services, according to an Apple blog post.
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Source : Moguldom Nation
Universal Music Partners with Nigeria-based Aristokrat Group
Universal Music, through its French division, has announced a strategic partnership with the Lagos-based Aristokrat Group via which the two companies say they will “discover and develop exciting new African talent”, and then seek to help those artists find a global audience “with support from Universal Music Group companies around the world”.
The Aristokrat Group works in various strands of the music industry in its home country of Nigeria, including recordings, publishing, live and brand partnerships. It is perhaps best known for developing the career of Burna Boy, who now works with Warner on his recordings, but Universal on exploiting his song rights.
The new joint venture will work with artists on both their recordings and songs, with initial signings including Kel P, the producer who worked with Burna Boy on his 2019 album ‘African Giant’. Universal’s label services unit Caroline will handle the distribution on all the releases put out by the new joint venture business.
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Source: completemusicupdate
Veteran actress, Chizoba Sam-Boye, dies at 52
The Nigerian movie industry was thrown into mourning mood on Monday, as it lost yet another veteran actress, Chizoba Sam-Boye to the cold hands of death. She was 52.
The actress reportedly died after suffering from an infected diabetic boil.
She was said to have been battling with diabetes, stroke and high blood pressure for many years now.
Breaking the sad news on the Filmmakers WhatsApp group called, Film4Life, film critic and the regional representative for West Africa of the Pan-African Federation of Filmmakers (FEPACI), Madu Chikwendu wrote, “Chizoba Sam-Boye is dead.”
According to film make, Jude Orhorha, the deceased was rushed to the hospital yesterday night , where she was confirmed dead Monday morning.
The actress, who was a strong advocate of Igbo language films would be remembered for her pioneering role in ‘Living in Bondage,’ that gave birth to Nollywood ‘Checkmate, Scandals among others great movies.
Chizoba, wife of veteran filmmaker, Sam Boye, was also the star of M-net produced TV series, “Tinsel.”
It was gathered that she recently celebrated her 15th wedding anniversary with her husband. Her colleagues in the movie industry have since been paying tributes to the late actress.
Russell Crowe Thriller ‘Unhinged’ to be First Major Release as Theaters Re-Open
If everything goes according to plan, “Unhinged,” a thriller with Russell Crowe, will be the first wide release film to debut in U.S. theaters when and if exhibition chains re-open in July.
The film will bow on July 1, preempting Christopher Nolan’s “Tenet,” currently scheduled to bow on July 17, by more than two weeks. “Unhinged” is the first release from Solstice Studios, a new independent movie company that numbers veteran producer Mark Gill (“Olympus Has Fallen”) among its founders.
It’s a bold, albeit risky bet by Solstice, given that the coronavirus has led to widespread theater closures. Some states are beginning to lift restrictions and allow more businesses to open, and theaters are starting to welcome customers in places like Texas, but it’s still unclear if major markets such as Los Angeles and New York City will be back in business by July. Gill, who serves as Solstice’s president and CEO, said he was convinced to make the move after consulting with theater owners and John Fithian, head of the National Association of Theatre Owners, an exhibition industry trade group. He was impressed by the plans they were putting in place to stagger showtimes, enhance cleanings and keep cinemas free from COVID-19. Yet, Gill acknowledges that it’s possible that some key markets will still be closed when “Unhinged” opens.
“If there are places where density is a factor and theaters aren’t open, that’s okay,” said Gill. “It might be that theaters are closed in New York City or Chicago or San Francisco, but less populated cities and suburbs will be open and we expect there to be a lot of pent-up demand.”
In announcing the move, Solstice notes that theaters plan to cooperate with state public health department guidelines, and have committed to showing films at reduced capacity so audience members can practice social distancing. It also notes that there is widespread support for re-opening theaters, citing an internal poll of 1,000 moviegoers that shows more than 80% of Americans want to go out to the movies in July. Solstice was also motivated to move “Unhinged” because the film was originally scheduled to open on Sept. 4. That date became more competitive after “A Quiet Place Part II” was pushed there from its original opening of March 8 due to the coronavirus.
“We would get killed if we stayed there,” said Gill. “The whole idea is not to be somewhere where you can get run over by a super tanker.”
It’s still unclear if “Tenet” will stick to its original date. Warner Bros., the studio behind the film, is expected to make a final decision in the coming days. When theaters re-open, industry figures such as Fithian have warned that audiences may be slow to return. That could mean that movies like “Unhinged” or “Tenet” won’t open to the kind of numbers that they would have pre-pandemic. However, Fithian recently argued that they would stick around in theaters longer, because there would be fewer new releases vying for attention and because people would gradually grow more comfortable with the idea of sitting in a theater. Gill agrees.
“Things are moving in the direction of re-opening,” said Gill. “It may be bumpy at times, but most people are taking steps to do this safely.”
“Unhinged” centers on a woman who becomes entangled in a terrifying act of “road rage” when she beeps her horn at the wrong driver. The film was written by Carl Ellsworth (“Disturbia”) and directed by Derrick Borte (“American Dreamer”).
Source: Variety
Multichoice Talent Factory & Dolby Audio Host Dolby Audio Webinar.
The MultiChoice Talent Factory (MTF) in partnership with Dolby Institute is excited to offer yet another online learning channel, Dolby Audio Webinars. The series of webinars covers 8 topics with 4 webinars geared towards all content creators whilst the other 4 are more technical and tailormade for mix engineers, video editors and system integrators.
Below are details of the DOLBY webinars:
Script Analysis and Planning for 5.1 Production.
All Creatives
16 April 2020 at 13:00 CAT
Location Recording.
All Creatives
23 April 2020 at 13:00 CAT
Sound for Video Editors Video Editor & Mix Engineers 30 April 2020 at 13:00 CAT
Setting up a 5.1 Session & Mix Environment
Mix Engineers
7 May 2020 at 13:00 CAT
Mixing for Creatives (Foley, fx, music)
All Creatives
14 May 2020 at 13:00 CAT
Mix and Deliverables
Mix Engineer
21 May 2020 at 13:00 CAT
Dolby Atmos Overview
All Creatives
28 May 2020 at 13:00 CAT
Dolby Atmos Content Creation (Content Creation Team) Mix engineer, System integrators 4 June 2020 at 13:00 CAT
The recorded webinar series will be made available the day after.
