With a population of approximately 230 million and being home to some of Africa’s biggest artistes, the Nigerian music scene is a force to reckon with.
Streaming platforms like Spotify have been a game-changer, allowing artistes to reach audiences beyond their borders and benefit financially from their craft.
Spotify launched its annual report, Loud & Clear, to increase transparency in the music industry, by sharing data on royalty payments and breaking down the global streaming economy, the players and the processes.
For the second year in a row, Spotify is releasing the data on earnings specifically for Nigerian artistes on the platform.
Here are the key figures from Spotify’s 2024 Loud & Clear Report on the Nigerian music streaming:
Streaming royalties for Nigerian artistes on Spotify alone exceeded N25 billion in 2023, double the prior year (2,500% increase since 2017).
The number of Nigerian artistes earning over N10 million in royalties quadrupled since 2018
Over half of these royalties went to independent artistes or labels, showcasing the democratizing power of streaming.
Spotify listeners discovered Nigerian artistes nearly 950 million times in 2023.
Nigerian artistes own over 80% of the tracks featured on Nigeria’s daily top 50 charts in 2023. Over 1,400 Nigerian artistes added to Spotify editorial playlists in 2023.
“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,” says Jocelyne Muhutu-Remy, Spotify’s Managing Director for Sub-Saharan Africa.
Beyond Afrobeats: A genre revolution
While Afrobeats remains the king, Nigeria’s music scene is experiencing a genre revolution.
Spotify data reveals an increase in popularity across local genres:
Homegrown genres like Highlife (up 224%), Igbo Pop (up 303%), and Fuji (up 187%) are experiencing significant increase in listenership in the last 12 months.
Highlife, Fuji, and Igbo Pop also saw listenership increase in Q1 2024 growing by 240%, 175% and 270% respectively compared to Q1 2023.
Top Artistes: Fuji king, K1 De Ultimate remains on top, while Highlife finds new life with Umu Obiligbo‘s energy and Phyno for Igbo Pop.
Top Tracks: Fuji gets a fresh spin with Adewale Ayuba’s Koloba Koloba, Highlife goes nostalgic with Chief Stephen Osita Osadebe’s Nwanem Ebezina and Igbo Pop gets a vibrant boost with KCee’s Ojapiano
Men dominate listeners of local music genres like Fuji (85%), Highlife (89%), and Igbo Pop (81%). However, Gen Z (aged 18-24) is the leading age group across all the three genres, making up 32% of Fuji listeners, 31% of Highlife listeners, and 46% of Igbo Pop listeners.
Interestingly, cities like Lagos, Port Harcourt and Katsina all top the charts for streaming these local genres – Fuji, Highlife, and Igbo Pop.
The top 5 exported music genres from Nigeria are Afrobeats, Nigerian Pop, Afropop, Nigerian Hip Hop and Afro R&B