Spotify celebrates Afrobeats’ billion-stream milestone in Lagos

The programmes, held at La Madison Place in Lekki, united industry stakeholders including artists, music executives and fans, as well as media personalities and influencers at separate experiential events dubbed #SpotifyPodcastsLagos and #SpotifyAfrobeats. The programmes also complemented the June launch of the DSP’s Afrobeats: Journey of a Billion Streams website tracking the sound’s global ascent over the years.

The events began with a masterclass featuring Spotify’s podcast manager for sub-Saharan Africa, Ncebakazi Manzi, allowing enthusiasts to explore the art of storytelling, innovative techniques in podcasting, and Spotify’s support for podcast creators. A fireside chat followed, led by Gwenevier Ehimen Lem of the Association of African Podcasters and Voiceover Artists.

Following this were live podcast recordings featuring Jola Ayeye and Feyikem Abudu from I Said What I Said, and Joey Akan from Afrobeats Intelligence. Akan discussed various topics with Spotify’s artist and the company’s label partnerships manager for West Africa, Victor Okpala, while the I Said What I Said live show featured artists Nissi and Pheelz. This was followed by a live Q&A session. The event concluded with a performance by Pheelz.

On the second day, at a venue whose visual projections and experiential booths allowed the attendees to immerse themselves in the history of Afrobeats, the celebration featured performances by emerging and established artists, including Bloody Civilian, FAVE, Shallipopi, Sarz and Ruger.

Primarily rooted in West African nations like Nigeria and Ghana, Afrobeats blends traditional African sounds like highlife with elements of hip hop, R&B and electronic music. It has gained international popularity over the past decade, especially in the US and UK, with Nigerian artists Wizkid, Davido, Burna Boy and CKay enjoying lengthy exposure on the charts. The genre has also prompted regular collaborations between African popstars and their American counterparts.

According to Spotify data, Afrobeats has grown by 550% since 2017 and was streamed more than 13 billion times on the platform in 2022 alone. In the same year, revenues generated by Nigerian artists on its platform reached ₦11bn ($14m). Last month, Afrobeats’ most exported artist Rema’s ‘Calm Down’ single remix featuring Selena Gomez surpassed a billion streams on Spotify about a year after its release, making the song the first from and African artist to achieve this milestone, with its highest streams coming from the US, India, Mexico, Brazil and the UK.

“Spotify’s commitment to connecting people with the music they love is at the heart of everything we do,” the company’s managing director for sub-Saharan Africa, Jocelyne Muhutu-Remy, said in Lagos. “We’re thrilled to continue celebrating Afrobeats’ milestones and reinforce our commitment to the growth of the music ecosystem in Nigeria and across Africa.”