Grace Ashiru
When Philip Olajide-Philips couldn’t afford studio time, he built a studio. Not a physical one, but an AI-powered platform that understands what it means for music to actually sound African.
His startup, Korin AI, where “korin” means “to sing” in Yoruba, is an AI music platform that allows users to generate songs in African languages and accents. It is, in some ways, a direct competitor to larger global platforms like Suno AI and Udio that are reshaping the music industry. But Korin’s value proposition is rooted in something those platforms cannot offer: it is being built with African languages, accents, and creative realities in mind.
Olajide-Philips is blunt about the problem with existing AI music tools. “Most of the AI music tools out there were built for the Western world,” he says. “If you put Yoruba or Zulu lyrics into them, they’ll sing the words, but they pronounce them like British or American English.” His goal with Korin is that it sounds like an African voice in your own language, not like a foreign singer reading your words.
Korin AI is geared toward emerging and independent artists, producers, filmmakers, and anyone with musical ideas but limited access to professional studios. In many African cities, recording a polished single can cost hundreds of dollars and take weeks to complete. “I saw that about 75% of upcoming artists in Africa simply can’t afford top studios,” Olajide-Philips says. “You can be very talented, but if your production quality is low, people won’t listen. So I asked myself: in this AI world, why can’t we have a virtual African studio that anyone can access?”
The platform is already live, with its strongest base in Nigeria and coverage of a growing number of African languages. Users in Lesotho, Gambia, and Kenya can already access it, though the depth and accuracy varies by region depending on how much language and vocal data has been collected. A version 2.0 is set to debut in May. The longer-term roadmap involves expanding to all major African languages by partnering with local producers and individuals to collect data and train models on local voices, accents, and musical styles, with funding being the primary factor determining how quickly that expansion can happen.
At a time when global AI music platforms are facing intense criticism for training on artists’ work without consent, Olajide-Philips says Korin is deliberately trying to build differently, prioritising ethical data collection and keeping human creativity at the centre of the process rather than replacing it. The broader question of what AI means for musicians, their livelihoods, and the ownership of creative work has no easy answers, but for artists across Africa who have long been priced out of professional production, a platform that speaks their language, literally, is at least asking a different set of questions.
