The Africa Rising Music Conference (ARMC) is a leading platform connecting African music professionals with the global music industry, and the sixth edition returns to Constitution Hill on 22–23 May 2026, bringing together music industry leaders, artists, technology innovators, and rights organisations to explore the future of music, innovation, and creator rights in the age of artificial intelligence.
A major focus of this year’s conference is the expansion of the Berlin AI Think Tank to Johannesburg for the first time. Founded by Paradise Worldwide, AIxchange, AFEM (Association for Electronic Music), Fraunhofer IDMT, and MusicTech Germany, the initiative brings together international and African stakeholders working on ethical AI frameworks for the music industry.
Discussions will focus on creator consent, fair remuneration, AI licensing, and the development of an independent Pan-African framework that helps ensure African music and creativity remain protected and properly valued in emerging AI ecosystems.
Alongside the roundtable, ARMC 2026 will also host a public panel exploring AI in the Creative Industries, open to all conference delegates. The session will examine how AI is impacting artists, labels, rights holders, and the wider music ecosystem, while offering practical insight into licensing, attribution, and the future of creative ownership.
Panel participants include Steffen Holly (Fraunhofer IDMT), Marco Erler (Lausen Law), Henrik Schwarz (Artist / Producer), Trenton Birch (Bridges For Music), and Ollie Stoller (AlphaTheta).
At the center of the initiative is the Creative Weight Attribution (CWA), a model developed by AIxchange that aims to measure how copyrighted works influence AI-generated music. Using advanced audio analysis and similarity technology, CWA seeks to identify and attribute creative influence within AI-generated outputs, helping move the industry beyond broad, one-size-fits-all licensing approaches.
The framework builds on decades of audio analysis and signal-processing expertise, including foundational work by Fraunhofer that helped shape modern digital audio and metadata standards.
