Spotify has announced that the number of Nigerian artistes that are earning more than 10 million naira in royalties has quadrupled since 2018.

According to the ‘International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI) 2024 report’, the Sub-Saharan Africa market has boasted to be the world’s fastest-music-growing revenue with a staggering 24.7% growth increase.

This growth is attained by a surge in paid streaming services, which now contribute 24.5% of the revenue. Notably, Sub-Saharan Africa is the only region that is surpassing 20% growth.

However, the Nigerian music industry has recorded impressive growth in streaming. With a population of approximately 230 million and being home to some of Africa’s biggest artistes, Nigeria’s music scene is a force to be reckoned with, especially as Afrobeats is taking on the world.

Streaming platforms like Spotify have been a game-changer, allowing artistes to reach audiences beyond their borders and get them benefited, financially, from their crafts and talents.

Spotify launched its 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. For the second consecutive year, Spotify is releasing data on earnings, specifically for Nigerian artistes on the Spotify’s platform.

Streaming royalties for Nigerian artistes on Spotify alone exceeded 25 billion NGN in 2023, double the prior year(2022) , and 2,500% increase since 2017.

The number of Nigerian artistes earning over 10 million naira in royalties had quadrupled since 2018, and over half of the royalties had gone to independent artistes or labels, which is indicative of an equitable system of streaming.

Spotify listeners discovered Nigerian artistes nearly 950 million times in 2023, and Nigerian artistes own over 80% of the tracks that were featured on Nigeria’s daily top 50 chart in 2023. Hence, more than 1,400 Nigerian artistes were added to Spotify editorial playlists in 2023.

While speaking on Spotify’s rapid growth in Nigeria, Jocelyne Muhutu-Remy, the company’s Managing Director for Sub-Saharan Africa said: “The significant growth in royalties earned by Nigerian artistes on our platform is a powerful testament to their talent, creativity, and global appeal. We’re proud to amplify their voices and fuel the Nigerian music revolution. As a leader in the streaming economy, we’re committed to supporting African creators to make a living from their art and we’ll continue to invest further in African artistes to ensure this momentum continues.”

The growth in streaming revenue or income for Nigerian artistes is an attendant effect of the continuous rise in the exportation of Nigerian music that got to a high point in 2023 when Rema’s hit song ‘Calm Down’ feat Selena Gomez became the first Afrobeats song to hit 1 billion Spotify streams.