Most unpaid royalties start out as bad data.
KoraGraph puts nearly thirty years of documenting African music to work on a practical problem: making sure the right people get paid when their music is used.
It started with a website in 1997.
KoraGraph Limited (RC 9695923) is a recently incorporated Nigerian technology company. Its roots go back to Africanhiphop.com, which launched in 1997 as one of the first websites dedicated to African hip-hop and urban culture, and grew into the first pan-African hip-hop community online.
Since the early 1990s the archive has grown with material from across Africa and the diaspora, from recordings and interviews to photographs, magazines and discographies. Academic researchers have documented the collection as a research dataset, and a long list of published academic work draws on material from the archive.
When the data is incomplete, the money gets stuck.
There is plenty of African music online. What is often missing is reliable information about it: who wrote and performed a song, and who owns the recording. When that information can't be matched to plays and sales, royalties are hard to trace and often never reach the people they belong to.
Our modelling shows that a significant share of royalty income in Nigeria goes uncollected or ends up with the wrong party. KoraGraph is building the systems to trace that money and pay it out correctly.
We build the systems behind the platforms.
KoraGraph is designed to work alongside the major streaming services. Our part happens underneath the platforms: matching what gets played to who owns it, so that payments go to the right place.
Registering works
Artists and rights holders register their songs with the names of everyone involved and the paperwork that shows who owns what. That record stays attached to the music wherever it goes.
Bringing old catalogues back
A lot of important African music came out before streaming and was never properly catalogued. We help labels and artists document those recordings so they can be found and licensed, whether it's a box of tapes or an entire back catalogue.
Reaching listeners without smartphones
Many listeners use basic phones and will never pay for a streaming subscription. Working with mobile networks, we can get music to them and collect payment through channels people already use.
Tracing payments
Because ownership and earnings are recorded in the same place, platforms, collecting societies and broadcasters can check who should be paid before the money goes out.
For the people who make the music, and the organisations that back them.
Artists, labels and rights holders
You get a lasting record of your work and a clearer view of where it is played and what it earns. You keep your rights; KoraGraph keeps the record straight.
- Register your works and the evidence behind them
- Get older recordings back into circulation
- See ownership and earnings in one place
- Keep your existing label and platform deals
Investors and partners
KoraGraph brings a long-running archive and nearly thirty years of contacts in African music to a part of the business that gets little attention: rights data and royalty settlement.
- Rights and metadata systems for businesses
- Works with any platform
- Payments that can be checked and audited
- Starting with the Nigerian market
The core system is built and being prepared for launch.
The first version has been tested, and we are now getting it ready for launch. It is designed to connect with streaming services, and with telecom and payment providers so that people can pay by phone.
Want to work with KoraGraph?
Artists, labels, platforms and investors can reach us at the addresses below.
[email protected]SCCN House, Plot 184, Ademola Adetokunbo Crescent,
Wuse 2, Abuja, FCT, Nigeria