African Music Library Introduction

Hello,

Welcome to our newsletter! 

This is where we share the growth journey of our project, the African Music Library - AML with you. AML is the first ever digital library documenting robust data, key information, and deep knowledge of African music. 

In recent years, a few African music genres have positively drawn the attention of the global audience to African Music. In spite of that, there are still so many other facets to African music, including our history, which are lost on the rest of the world as a result of gross misrepresentation and most times, unavailability of verifiable information.

Unlike music from other developed parts of the world, African music, until recently, has had no unified platform that objectively follows, analyses, and documents the evolution of the numerous sounds coming out of the continent, as well as the verified background of the creators and detailed information on African music genres and instruments.

African Music is rich, yet misunderstood and inaccurately represented.

In an effort to match African music data with the speedy global acceptance, AML became evitable. The platform is a product of three years of hard work and dedication from all the team members, who are deeply committed to seeing Africans rightly document the stories of our musical heritage. We see a future where Africans will be considered priority consumers of music, media, and information in their local contexts. Beyond serving as a single source reference for now and the future, the African Music Library aims to provide the data foundation for the music engineers, researchers, and musicologists that will participate in this future.

The subsequent editions of our newsletter will narrate our entire experience building this project, the success we hope to achieve on this journey, deep insights into the empirical records of African music, and numerous collaborative initiatives.

We welcome you to be a part of our growing community. Explore, share and engage in ongoing conversations aimed at shaping the future of African music.

There is a lot to uncover in the rich world of African music.

Join us on this enlightenment journey.