AfroCharts pitches in France

Leonard Novati, founder of Milwaukee-based AfroCharts, will pitch his music sharing and streaming platform featuring African artists in France next week.

AfroCharts was selected from an international pool of applicants eager to present their music industry innovations at MIDEM+24, hosted in Cannes, France. The event runs from January 24 to January 27 and draws C-Suite music industry executives, creatives, and legal professionals from around the globe. Conference keynote speakers include event ambassadors Nigerian musician Yemi Alade and Stewart Copeland, a founding member of the rock trio The Police.

“This is the first time I will get to present AfroCharts at a one hundred percent music-tech focused conference. Even though France is far from home, I am looking forward to presenting AfroCharts in front of music tech executives, investors and making connections with other music-tech founders,” Novati said.

Novati will have one minute and 30 seconds to pitch AfroCharts and ask the audience for strategic partnerships and funding. The CEO aims to raise more than $500,000 at the event. “The money will be used to acquire more songs and onboard more artists, as well as push our marketing and sales initiatives to acquire more users which will increase our revenue,” he said.

AfroCharts is not well-known in France, but Novati hopes his presentation will help change that.

“AfroCharts is not popular in France but music from artists in France with African origin is popular on AfroCharts. Most of the music in France has a huge Congolese influence,” he said.

Regardless of the outcome of this pitch event, AfroCharts has big plans for the upcoming year.

“In 2024, we will be hosting more events and parties in Milwaukee in an effort to continue building the Afrobeats and African music community in Milwaukee and beyond. We will also introduce the online radio feature in the AfroCharts app to allow people to stream online radio stations from across the globe in one place. We hope this will allow us to reach a new kind of audience,” he said.

To read past stories on AfroCharts, click here. To follow AfroCharts journey to MIDEM+24, click here.