Short Abstract

How are digital technologies changing how African music is represented, classified, discovered and circulated? This panel examines metadata, algorithms, AI, streaming, digital archives and production technologies across African contexts.

Long Abstract

Digital technologies now influence how African music is produced, described, classified, discovered and circulated. Streaming and social media services, digital archives, metadata systems, recommendation algorithms, artificial intelligence and new production technologies have created different routes through which African music reaches audiences and enters digital collections. They also affect what becomes visible, how music is categorised and what information accompanies it.

This panel examines how these digital developments are changing the representation and circulation of African music. It invites contributions on streaming and social media, digital archives and repositories, metadata and discoverability, algorithmic recommendation, artificial intelligence, recording and production technologies, language, ownership, attribution, and the representation of musical traditions in digital environments. Contributions may examine Indigenous, traditional or contemporary African music and may use musicological, ethnographic, archival, digital humanities, computational or interdisciplinary approaches.

The panel asks: How do digital systems influence which African music becomes visible and discoverable? How are musical traditions described and classified when they enter digital environments? What happens to language, attribution and cultural context as music moves across digital systems? How are AI, algorithms and emerging production technologies changing the creation, circulation and interpretation of African music?

These questions connect African music to wider debates about technological change, digital representation and the circulation of knowledge.

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