Spotify rakes over N11 billion from Afrobeats artists

Spotify, a global streaming platform on their ‘Journey of a Billion Streams’ website has reported generating over N11 billion in revenue in 2022. The company citing IFPI reported that the overall Nigerian music revenue grew 63 percent from 2021 to 2022 while revenues generated by Nigerian artists (from Spotify alone) grew 74 percent over this same time period.

The result of Afrobeats crossing its West African borders has not only impacted music, it has also been a vehicle for food, dance and language export. This cultural exportation currently taking place thanks to Afrobeats’ prevalence in mainstream global media is the focus of this week’s update to Spotify’s Afrobeats:Journey of a Billion Streams site.

The number of Nigerian artists who generated more than N5 million and N10 million in royalties from Spotify alone has increased by nearly 25 percent over the last year. This figure represents revenue generated from Spotify alone, and does not take into account earnings from other services and recorded revenue streams, concert tickets or merch.

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The report states that Afrobeats surge in popularity can be linked to several factors including international collaborations, the power of social media, the rise in music streaming and the African diaspora. According to Spotify-commissioned research conducted by Kuvora, 28 percent of fans believe that international collaborations is one of the key factors driving the growth of Afrobeats.

As a means for artists to be clear about the economics of music streaming, Spotify launched its now annual report, ‘Loud & Clear’, to increase transparency in the music industry by sharing data on Spotify’s royalty payments and breaking down the global streaming economy, the players and the process.

Jocelyne Muhutu-Remy, Spotify’s Managing Director for Sub Saharan Africa said, “Our commitment at Spotify is to ensure that professional musicians make a living from their work. Releasing the revenues generated by Nigerian artists in 2022 on our platform is our way of keeping ourselves accountable, and keeping true to our mission to enable artists to live off their art.”

The report also states that there is a certain level of democratisation that has occurred in the music industry, thanks to music streaming and Spotify’s commitment is to ensure that African creators earn from their art, by exposing them to 550 million active users on the platform, resulting in new audiences and more streams for the artists.

Some of the top cities, outside of Lagos, where Afrobeats is getting the most streams are London, Paris, Abuja, Nairobi, Amsterdam and Accra.

‘Journey of a Billion Streams’ was launched by Spotify last month to chronicle Afrobeats’ growth from West Africa to the global stages, the site has so far journeyed through Afrobeats origins in Ghana and Nigeria, the evolution into the current sound and its fusion with other genres.