Nigerian artistes’ revenue on Spotify grew by 74% in 2022, raking over ₦11 billion
At the end of 2022, Nigerian artistes generated over ₦11 billion in revenue via Spotify, recording a 74% increase from the previous year.
Last year, Nigerian artistes generated over ₦11 billion on Spotify, recording a 74% increase from the previous year, according to a report released by the global streaming company on its Afrobeats website. This revenue is higher than the 64% revenue growth the entire Nigerian music industry recorded in the same year.
“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,” says Spotify’s Managing Director for Sub-Saharan Africa, Jocelyne Muhutu-Remy.
About half of Nigerian artistes who generated ₦1 million self-distributed their music on Spotify using DistroKid, Vydia, and ONErpm.
According to Spotify, the number of Nigerian artistes who generated more than ₦5 million and ₦10 million in royalties from Spotify alone also has increased by nearly 25% in 2022. “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,” Spotify disclosed in the report.
The most streamed Nigerian artistes on Spotify in 2022
At the end of 2022, Victor Okpala, Spotify’s Artist & Label Partnerships Manager, West Africa, disclosed that Burnaboy was the most globally streamed artist in Nigeria and Sub-Saharan Africa.
Other male artists in the top 10 artists in Nigeria comprise Wizkid, BNXN fka Buju, Davido, Asake, Drake, Fireboy DML, Kizz Daniel, Omah Lay, and Rema. Mavin’s princess, Ayra Starr is the most streamed female artiste in Nigeria for 2022, while Tems has the ultimate vibe among Nigeria’s musical exports in 2022. ‘Wait For You’, the musician’s collabo with Drake & Future, was the leading Nigerian song export of 2022.
Listen: The most streamed Nigerian songs on Spotify in 2022
The rise of Afrobeats
Afrobeats was streamed more than 13 billion times on Spotify in 2022. The rise of the genre has been credited to increased collaboration between Nigerian musicians and global artistes, as well as immigration. “A lot of Africans in those cities have been religiously playing Afrobeats,” Juls, a Ghanaian producer and DJ told Rolling Stone. “It’s just gotten around like, ‘Wow, I went to this club, and this is what they were playing, and it was going off!’”
The most streamed Afrobeats song of all time on Spotify is Rema’s Calm Down collaboration with Selena Gomez.
“It’s fair to say that Afrobeats is probably one of Africa’s biggest cultural exports right now, and it is definitely influencing the music being made both on the continent and elsewhere in the world,” Muhutu-Remy said. “By its very nature, Afrobeats is an amalgamation of sounds, which lending itself beautifully to fusions with other musical styles, as well as collaborations with artists from the continent and around the world.”
In both Asia and India, Rema, CKay, and Libianca occupy the top spots as the most streamed Afrobeats artists.
Last month, the American music industry’s Grammy Awards introduced an African music category. “This is probably also, in large part, due to the massive popularity of genres like Afrobeats and Amapiano across the world right now,” Spotify’s chief executive for sub-Saharan Africa told Aljazeera.
Recently, Spotify launched “Journey of a Billion Streams”, a dedicated site that will track all things related to the genre. The site acts as a repository for this cultural phenomenon, housing text, infographics and visual elements, including Spotify streaming data.
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