SceneNoise Launches Noise Records to Support MENA’s Emerging Artists

For over a decade, SceneNoise has been the voice of the Middle East’s independent music scene - from Egypt and Morocco’s explosive rap scene to Beirut and UAE’s legendary clubbing scene and everything in between, offering unrivaled insight, views, reviews, in-depth documentaries and more covering the latest musical movements shaping contemporary Arab culture.

Noise Records is an opportunity for SceneNoise to use its voice to become a driver of that culture, discovering and supporting emerging artists across MENA and opening up new opportunities for them to monetize their music and connect with fans in more meaningful and innovative ways - a natural extension of  the publication’s commitment to fostering the careers of artists across the region.

Noise Records is a progressive music label and launchpad providing marketing, music and video production, strategy, brand partnerships and distribution - whilst cultivating artists’ digital worlds through an unparalleled media network and industry insight.

“What’s the point of a label? I’ve been asking this question for a long time,” Timmy Mowafi, Co-Founder of MO4 Network & SceneNosie, says. “We are in a day and age where Gen Zs armed with the right Tiktok trend can create infinitely more impact than a major label’s boardroom. Is it about booking artists for gigs when everyone is a DM away? When artists barely have a chance of making significant income from streaming or selling their music - especially with MENA’s below average payout rates compared to the rest of the world - why are labels taking pennies on the pennies? How can we ensure artists are compensated in ways that allow them to keep doing what they love, in a region where that is notoriously difficult? How can a select few build fences around what is deemed cool when culture has become so commodified  and every opinion can be validated online - where Beethoven’s symphonies are functionality equivalent to the Barbie album? Why are we labeling things when every artist’s bio begins with an aphorism about being genre-less? So what’s the point in a label? I don’t know. Noise Records is, if anything, a chance to explore what a label could be.”

Noise Records aims to champion cross-cultural and cross-discipline creativity to disrupt and inspire the MENA music scene whilst building lasting communities around the artist as well as the label. Over the coming months Noise Records will also be introducing memberships which will give opportunities to fans to access exclusive events and content as well as vote on label moves and artist releases.

“Not bound by structures, genres or methodologies of the past - newness is our north star,” Mowafi adds. “The music industry isn’t broken, it's simply evolving. And now, especially in the Middle East, there is no more exciting time to be part of that change.”

Noise Records will be launching with a genre-agnostic various artists album in January 2024 featuring 17 of its favorite cutting-edge artists from 10 countries across Middle East and North Africa, musicians who have broken boundaries of their genre whilst making an impact within their scenes. In Q1 2023 Noise Records will also be announcing its first artist signing, a first-of-its-kind.

Follow @nois3records and stay tuned.