Nigerian music exports grow 49% on Afrobeats’ boom

Nigeria’s music exports grew by 49 percent over the past three years due to the Afrobeats boom, according to Spotify, streaming giant.

This is as global listeners spend an average of over 1.1 million hours streaming Nigerian artistes, with users creating approximately 250 million playlists featuring Nigerian artistes worldwide, Spotify revealed during the release of the 2024 Loud & Clear report.

Jocelyne Muhutu-Remy, managing director for Spotify Africa, stated on Thursday that data showed that Afrobeats was the fastest-growing genre in the world in 2024, pointing to markets like France and the Netherlands, where Nigerian music is gaining traction. She forecast that the UK and US markets would become major hubs for Nigerian music in the coming years.

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Beyond global growth, the local consumption of Nigerian content has grown 206 percent year-on-year, with a 782 percent increase over the past three years, showing a significant rise in Nigeria’s appetite for local content.

Economic wins, industry growth

This boom translated to a N58 billion payout from Spotify to Nigerian artistes in 2024 alone, a figure that is more than double the previous year’s total.

Muhutu-Remy emphasised the power of user-generated and editorial playlists in boosting artistes’ discovery, noting that new Nigerian artistes were discovered 1 billion times worldwide on Spotify. Spotify revealed that more than 1,900 Nigerian artistes were added to Spotify editorial playlists—33 percent more than in 2023.

“Discovery is an essential feature of streaming, and Spotify is particularly good at helping artists be discovered,” she said. “It means that if you’re in Oslo, in Tokyo, or wherever, you can discover or listen to a Nigerian artist for the first time. This is the mainstreaming and normalising of our sounds in people’s lives worldwide.”

Economic impact on artistes

Spotify’s financial contribution to Nigerian artistes has seen exponential growth. While globally recognised stars like Burna Boy and Rema continue to thrive, Muhutu-Remy highlighted Spotify Africa’s focus on supporting the middle-class artistes.

She revealed that the number of Nigerian artistes earning N10 million through Spotify doubled in 2024, a promising sign for emerging talent.

Ecosystem growth, challenges

Muhutu-Remy said that the rise of Nigerian music is transforming the industry and economy at large, benefiting not just artistes but their entire ecosystem, from management to engineers and local communities surrounding performers.

However, Muhutu-Remy cautioned that significant hurdles remain in ensuring artistes fully capitalise on this growth. She explained that there is a lack of metadata knowledge, which includes details like who wrote or participated in a song.

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Additionally, weak rights management systems across Nigeria and the continent lag, complicating fair compensation. Also, limited financial literacy means many artists and their teams lack the expertise to navigate the financial aspects of streaming revenue.

“Even though the ecosystem is growing, artistes might not get their full share because of these challenges,” Muhutu-Remy said.

To address this, Spotify is prioritising education initiatives to equip artistes with the tools and knowledge needed to thrive in the streaming era.