Image by Africaincorp via Flickr

It’s no secret that the music industry and especially hip-hop has turned to the millions of promotional and media dollars that consumer brand companies possess in order to help underwrite album promotional costs. Recent deals where brands are footing promotional costs include:

TAG Bodyspray - The much publicized partnership with Jermaine Dupri and Def Jam to create an entire new record label called TAG Records. Under the deal, TAG will pony up the promotional and media dollars necessary to launch the new artists from the emerging label

Fila - Nas signs his first major promotional deal with a brand company in order to fund his multi-million dollar ad and tour campaign for his latest album. In exchange, Nas lends his likeness to promote the Fila brand in print and outdoor ads

Drinks America – Dr. Dre teams up with Drinks America to launch Aftermath Cognac which was planned to be timed with the release of his long-anticipated album “Detox”

Sears – In a fully integrated marketing campaign, LL Cool J will be releasing his LL Cool J branded fashion line at Sears in conjunction with the release of his new album. Sears will pony up the money for promotional dollars that will be split between promoting the clothing line and the new album.

Verizon – Hollywood hipster rapper Shwayze signs a deal with Verizon Wireless which has Verizon as the exclusive online distributor for his next single “Corona & Lime” and will pay for all other promotional costs in order to push the single
via Woohah

For the African music industry to follow the same business model, that would mean companies such as MTN,Ecobank,Zain,Solibra,Ethiopian Airlines,Air Ivoire,Safaricom,Peugeot Nigeria,Tantalizers,Nestle,Google Africa,DHL Africa,Coca Cola Africa to name few should embrace sponsorship of music artists as much as they do football teams or favorite soccer players/runners.