Ghanaian music company Apprise Music & Media has wrapped its fourth trip to the Worldwide Music Expo, pitching a slate of Ghanaian artists to festival programmers, booking agents and labels after WOMEX 2026 in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, Spain.
The gathering ran from 21 to 25 October. Apprise was represented by founder and chief executive Michael Kwabena Bamfo and chief operating officer and head of publishing Grace Nyele Mensah. According to reports by Citi Newsroom, MyJoyOnline and GhanaWeb, the company presented music and promotional materials for Epixode, Abiana, Yinewin, King Nzema, King Eazie, Ayizam and Rama Black.
Those pitches sat alongside meetings with international industry figures. Apprise said its delegation spoke with a representative of the Recording Academy, which organises the Grammy Awards, and with Ben Oldfield, vice president of distribution for Africa, France and Benelux at The Orchard, the Sony Music-owned distribution and artist services company. AmeyawDebrah.com published a photo of Bamfo and Mensah with Oldfield at the fair.
No formal partnerships were announced, and the outlets are careful to treat the talks as exploratory rather than confirmed deals. The focus, Apprise and the reports say, was on live touring, festival access, rights administration and cultural exchange — the industry plumbing that streaming alone does not provide when an artist wants to move from Accra playlists to overseas stages.
Founded in Ghana in 2018, Apprise works in digital distribution, publishing and music business education. Its WOMEX message is that Ghanaian music needs more than playlist placements: it needs bookers, promoters and cultural partners who can put artists on stages abroad, including acts rooted in highlife, indigenous percussion and local-language work as well as contemporary sounds.
That argument matters as Afrobeats keeps opening doors for African artists while many Ghanaian catalogues still struggle to convert streams into paid international dates. Apprise says it will keep following up the Gran Canaria contacts on showcases, touring and exchange projects.
Do you think more Ghanaian labels should chase festival networks this way? Let us know your thoughts in the comments.
