Egypt


Ahmed Fahmy
Age: 33

My Job Title

Director of Programming and Marketing - Nile Radio Production, NileFM & Nougoom FM, Cairo, Egypt
Managing Partner - Global Production, SAGA Musica and Spot-On Production, Cairo, Egypt

My Education

American University in Cairo, Cairo, Egypt, BA in Political science (1995)
Kingston University, Kingston Upon Thames, London , UK: Post graduate Diploma in Music technology and business (1998)
Goldsmiths College, University of London, London, UK: MA in Radio (2000)

My Work

"Nile Radio Production owns and operates Egypt's only private commercial radio stations: Nile and Nougoom FM, which are also the highest rated amongst youth in Cairo and greater Cairo. My responsibilities as Director of Programming include: determining the station format and identity; recruiting and training radio talents; sourcing music, determine and implement music policy; setting and producnig station programs; designing the stations' program grids. Reflecting Egypt's media reform policies, Nile and Nougoom Fm represent a long awaited breakthrough in the Egyptian radio and music industries. We would like to think that we have truly revolutionised the radio and music industry in Egypt. Nile Fm is also playing an important role in promoting major international DJ's ; moreover, Nile and Nougoom Fm play an important role in promoting international artists concert in Egypt though supporting major appearances in Cairo. In 2006, I was awarded programmer of the year in the Middle East in the Radio cast international radio conference in Dubai, UAE for my work with Nougoom Fm. Nile and Nougoom Fm are now arguably the biggest English and Arabic speaking commercial radio stations in the region.

Global Production is the first truly independent record label in Egypt. The goal is to identify talents and combine them to create a new sound based on the fusion between Oriental instruments and western beats - which is universal and exportable. We have 2 productions under our belt: One is a chill-out music album, a fusion between western and Oriental, and after one of the tracks was posted on Garageband.com, it received very enthusiastic reviews. It received 'Track of the day' and 'Track of the week' awards. Also recently, Global productions has managed to diversify and get into radio and TV production. We were successful in producing radio commercials for a growing list of clients."

Issues in the music industry in my country

"Egypt's music industry is characterised both by negative and positive points.

The negative ones are:

• Copyright - the main issue faced by the Egyptian music industry is the enforcement of copyright law. Although copyright law exists in Egypt, it is not enforced efficiently by the relevant authorities;
• Production quality - Egyptian production is of low quality especially regarding the post production (mastering) and manufacturing stage, on post production: only a few studios are equipped wit the proper mastering equipment and lack the professional operators to use correctly. Producers also still prefer low quality and low cost tape cassettes as their preferred output format;
• Lack of trust between artists and producers with regard to royalty distribution - Egyptian artists do not trust their producer to fairly distribute their royalties on sales. Their agreement is therefore based on a lump sum payment to be paid in advance to the artist. Such arrangement provides little incentive for Egyptian artist to further promote their releases, since they do not gain any royalties from furthering their sales. Furthermore, the producer often offer new talents unfair contracts aimed at monopolising the talent for years to come with little rights left to the artist. This always causes problems between the artists and their producers;
• WWW: The clash between the www and the music industry is a problem faced by music producers s all over the world. Major production companies are still struggling with the challenge of utilising the internet as an effective distribution channel. Their biggest challenge at the moment is how tot deal with the P2P (peer to peer) redistribution of musical content. In Egypt producer are still struggling with pirate website that offer free downloads of their products.
• Music retail outlets: With the exception of the newly opened Virgin megastore, Egypt lacks professional music retail outlets and all is based on street kiosks.

The positive ones are:

• Talent abundance - Egypt is full of great talent waiting to be discovered;
• New positive reforms - in the media sector especially in radio and satellite TV is definitely a plus to further promote and develop local and international talents in a free and relatively independent environment;
• Explosion of underground talents though new live circuits - The last 2 years have marked the launch of a new underground alternative, and bands like West Le Ballad, Iftikasat, and Vibe. Their rise is associated with the rise of alternative cultural venues such as the El Sawy Cultural wheel which plays an important role in showcasing and promoting these bands. The bands are already developing a large fan base and are quickly making their way to main stream. Major brands are now sponsoring alternative band concerts such as the SOS music festival in Maadi, which has already proved to be very successful amongst the youth;
• International concerts - Egypt is being put slowly in the international concerts tour map with major artists planning the Middle East and Egypt as a destination and part of their world tours;
• The opening of the new, Virgin Mega store.

Innovative artists & music business trends from my country

Kasr El Neal Street make chillout and dance music, and try to create a fusion between oriental and western music. We have posted 2 tracks on Garageband.com and received great reviews and awards.

Marble Heads A very talented underground rock band

Arabian Knights A very talented Egyptian Hip-hop group.

Bands like West el Ballad, Iftikasat represent a new trend in the Egyptian music business. In my opinion, I think they would do very well in the new World music genre. If promoted properly, they could join the likes of Buena Vista Social Club, Rúben Gonzalez, Omara Fuentes, Youssou N'Dour and many more artists from "the 3rd world", and make it big internationally."

The information above is taken from the application form completed by the finalist in early 2007. Things may have changed since this information was provided and we recommend that you should not rely upon this information as a definitive statement of current fact. Click here to contact the finalist.