African music has taken the world by storm, led by Amapiano and Afrobeats and the genres’ artists have reached previously unprecedented heights for African music. According to IFPI’s 2024 report, the Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) music industry is the only region where revenues’ growth surpassed 20%, making it the fastest growing. SSA’s overall revenue grew by 24.7%, which was fuelled by a surge in paid streaming revenues, contributing 24.5% of the revenues.
ALSO READ: Spotify releases 2022 revenues generated by South African artists
The Power of Music streaming
Closer home, IFPI reveals that South Africa is still the largest market in Sub-Saharan Africa, growing by 19.9% to contribute 77% of the total regional revenue. There are a number of factors that have contributed to this growth, but key among them is internet penetration and in tandem, music streaming. With streaming platforms like Spotify, artists are able to cross borders, widen their fan bases and make a living from their art.
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, Spotify is releasing the data on earnings specifically for South African artists on the platform.
These are the key figures from Spotify’s 2024 Loud & Clear Report on the South African music industry:
- In 2023, royalties generated by South African artists from Spotify alone reached nearly 256M ZAR, reflecting a nearly 240% increase since 2019 and a more than 500% increase since 2017.
- In 2023, South African artists were discovered by first time listeners over 735M times on Spotify.
- The number of South African artists generating over 100,000 ZAR in royalties from Spotify alone has grown more than 5x since 2018.
- In 2023, nearly 2,800 South African artists were added to editorial playlists on Spotify.
“South African artists’ streaming revenues on Spotify keeps growing every year, a true testament of their immense talent. It’s a privilege to continue supporting them, in keeping with our vision of ensuring all professional artists can make a living off their art,” says Jocelyne Muhutu-Remy, Spotify’s SSA Managing Director.
A genre keeping the world on its toes
Amapiano is South Africa’s biggest musical export, with its viral dance routines and catchy beats. Spotify’s on platform data shows that the genre is not slowing down anytime soon:
- There has been an uptick in local music consumption in South Africa, growing by 101% in 2023
- The industry is still male dominated but the female artists are gaining pace. Average streams for female artists year on year increased by 49% in 2023
- Amapiano tracks have been added to over 14 million playlists. The 2023 vs 2018 growth is 566%
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