Akon is stepping into yet another new frontier within the entertainment sector. According to Billboard, the "Don't Matter" artist joined forces with Motown's past president and CEO Kedar Massenburg to debut Akonik Label Group (ALG).
The organization will help cultivate artists from different sectors of music. Broken down into four entities, Afrobeats musicians, Latin America artists, Caribbean singers, and U.S. and Europe-based artists will benefit from the label's promotion. Over the course of a month, artists that call the label home will begin the process of sharing their music.
According to Akon, this business move has been brewing since 2010. "But at that time, the music business hadn't matured and diversified the way it has in terms of being open to new genre fusions and not as compartmentalized," he said. "We just want to bring a fresh ear and build an artist-driven company where people can be as creative as they wish without someone telling them what they have to do."
Reaching to different parts of the globe is ALG's mission, Massenburg said to the website, noting that discovering music is literally at the consumers' fingertips thanks to streaming services. "Music is able to reach a global market with a touch of a button," he added. “It’s 'global idol’ now versus American Idol. And the public has become the A&R for labels. We’re giving people a chance in other parts of the world that might not be heard. It’s an exciting time as the music industry reinvents itself.”
