{"id":143521,"date":"2025-03-20T12:14:30","date_gmt":"2025-03-20T16:14:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.cyberlego.com\/web\/2025\/03\/20\/empire-officially-launches-in-south-africa\/"},"modified":"2025-03-20T12:14:30","modified_gmt":"2025-03-20T16:14:30","slug":"empire-officially-launches-in-south-africa","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.cyberlego.com\/web\/2025\/03\/20\/empire-officially-launches-in-south-africa\/","title":{"rendered":"EMPIRE Officially Launches In South\u00a0Africa"},"content":{"rendered":"

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\n\tIndie label, publisher, distributor and content company EMPIRE has officially launched in South Africa, with a new office in Johannesburg, several executive hires and a launch party that featured some of the company\u2019s biggest artists from the continent.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe office is the latest push into Africa from EMPIRE, which already operates an extensive business in Nigeria and has a division that oversees operations in MENA<\/a> (Middle East\/North Africa) as well. Overseeing the South African office will be EMPIRE vp of strategy and market development Ezegozie Eze Jr.<\/strong>, while additional execs will include territory manager Innocent Nkosi-Shongwe<\/strong>, A&R Xivonaki Manzini<\/strong> and senior manager for commerce and streaming partnerships for Africa Jina Min<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cEstablishing our footprint across Southern Africa is fully aligned with our mission to bring music and culture to a global audience,\u201d EMPIRE founder\/CEO Ghazi<\/strong> said in a statement. \u201cWe\u2019ve already set out early on to strengthen operations in West and North Africa, and now we have the perfect team to spearhead our efforts in the Southern Africa region.\u201d<\/p>\n

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\t\t\t\t\tFrom the Bay Area to Africa, How EMPIRE Became A Global\u00a0Force\t\t<\/p>\n<\/h3><\/div>\n

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\n\tEMPIRE launched officially in Africa in 2022, based in Lagos, Nigeria, having served as a distributor for several labels and artists in West Africa since 2016. Eze joined the Africa team four years ago from Universal Music Group Nigeria, where he had been general manager; Min also joined EMPIRE in 2022, having worked at UMG and Sony; Innocent is joining from UMG South Africa to oversee EMPIRE\u2019s label operations in the country; while Xivo has worked with artists and brands such as Beyonc\u00e9, PJ Morton, Coca-Cola and Netflix.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cWith our expansion from West Africa into Southern Africa, EMPIRE is committed to amplifying the region\u2019s rich and diverse soundscapes, developing the next wave of generational talent and driving greater commercial success for independent artists and the industry as a whole,\u201d Eze said in a statement. Added Innocent, \u201cMusic, culture and independence are at the core of our operations at EMPIRE. We aim always to ensure artists can trust that we want the best for them and their careers. We are more than a label; we build brands and encourage artists to pursue their creativity authentically.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

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\t\t\t\t\t\t\"Cover,<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n

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\t\t\t\t\tThe Bay\u2019s All-Star: How EMPIRE\u2019s Ghazi Brought the Music Business to San\u00a0Francisco\t\t<\/p>\n<\/h3><\/div>\n

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\n\tAs part of the launch, EMPIRE held a kickoff party in January called ASAMBE! South Ahh, which featured performances from the likes of Emtee<\/strong>, Goldmax<\/strong>, Ndabo Zulu<\/strong>, Nontokozo Mkhize<\/strong> and Sminofu<\/strong>, among others, while EMPIRE artists like Fireboy DML<\/a>, Black Sherif<\/a> and L.A.X.<\/a> were in attendance. The company also launched what it is calling the EMPIRE Exclusives DJ Mixer, which is a platform that allows artists and producers to play unreleased music together, according to a press release.<\/p>\n

\n\tThis is the latest expansion for EMPIRE, which in recent months has also opened offices in Australia<\/a> and East Asia<\/a> as well as completing the acquisition of Top Drawer Merch, among other moves<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Aller \u00e0 la source<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Indie label, publisher, distributor and content company EMPIRE has officially launched in South Africa, with a new office in Johannesburg, several executive hires and a launch party that featured some of the company\u2019s biggest artists from the continent. The office is the latest push into Africa from EMPIRE, which already operates an extensive business in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-143521","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-musique","et-doesnt-have-format-content","et_post_format-et-post-format-standard"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cyberlego.com\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/143521","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cyberlego.com\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cyberlego.com\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cyberlego.com\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cyberlego.com\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=143521"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.cyberlego.com\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/143521\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cyberlego.com\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=143521"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cyberlego.com\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=143521"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cyberlego.com\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=143521"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}