Can Universal and Weeknd Manager Wassim ‘Sal’ Slaiby Take Arabic Music Global?
variety.comJem Aswad Senior Music EditorOne of the wonders of music streaming is its borderlessness. Back in the day, a person might never hear, let alone purchase, music outside their country or comfort zone if they didn’t happen to wander into that area of a record store or radio dial.
But streaming has midwifed seemingly unlikely genre collisions like hip-hop and emo rock, and perhaps most prominently, it supercharged the rise of reggaeton, the Latin-hip-hop hybrid whose rhythm has become the most ubiquitous sound of the past decade.Now, music companies are positioning themselves for even more discovery and cross-pollination: In the past five years, the world’s top three label groups, Sony, Universal and Warner, have expanded their global reach by opening offices or partnering with local companies in relatively untapped regions of Africa, Asia, Europe and South America.
The region that many feel is ripest for discovery is the Arab world, which has as rich, distinctive and historically vital a musical history as any culture but has been largely shunned by the West for reasons that have little to do with music.
Yet this year the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry, the global trade group for recorded music, identified the Middle East and North Africa as its fastest-growing region.In April 2021, during National Arab American Heritage Month, Universal made a big move to take the sound global, launching Universal Arabic Music.
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