Spotify announced that the number of Nigerian artists earning over 10 million NGN in royalties quadrupled since 2018.

According to the 2024 IFPI report, the Sub-Saharan Africa market boasts the world’s fastest-music growing revenue with a staggering 24.7% growth increase.

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

The Nigerian music industry records impressive growth in streaming

With a population of approximately 230 million and being home to some of Africa’s biggest artists, 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 artists 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 Spotify’s royalty payments and breaking down the global streaming economy, the players, and the process. For the second year in a row, Spotify is releasing data on earnings specifically for Nigerian artists on the platform.

Here are the key figures from Spotify’s 2024 Loud & Clear Report on Nigerian music streaming:

• Streaming royalties for Nigerian artists on Spotify alone exceeded 25 billion NGN in 2023, double the prior year. (2,500% increase since 2017).
• The number of Nigerian artists earning over 10 million NGN in royalties quadrupled since 2018.
• Over half of these royalties went to independent artists or labels, showcasing the democratizing power of streaming.
• Spotify listeners discovered Nigerian artists nearly 950 million times in 2023.
• Nigerian artists own over 80% of the tracks featured on Nigeria’s daily top 50 chart in 2023.
• Over 1,400 Nigerian artists added to Spotify editorial playlists in 2023.

Speaking on Spotify’s rapid growth in Nigeria Jocelyne Muhutu-Remy, the company’s Managing Director for Sub-Saharan Africa says “The significant growth in royalties earned by Nigerian artists 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 artists to ensure this momentum continues.”

The growth in streaming revenue for Nigerian artists captures the continuous rise in the exportation of Nigerian music which reach a high point in 2023 when Rema‘s ‘Calm Down’ feat Selena Gomez became the first Afrobeats song to hit 1 billion Spotify streams.