Spotify has announced the launch of Afrobeats: Journey of a Billion Streams, a dedicated one-of-its-kind site to capture the essence of Afrobeat and its cultural significance from its origin to its present-day growth. The platform will cover one of the continent’s biggest cultural and musical export especially as Afrobeat has continued to gain international recognition.
This platform will serve as a hub for Afrobeat enthusiasts, featuring text, infographics, visuals, and exclusive Spotify streaming data. It also plans to include timelines, fascinating Spotify insights, interviews with industry experts, and on-the-ground videos from key markets in Sub-Saharan Africa.
It will be updated on a biweekly basis for the next 8 weeks but will remain an evergreen resource, offering fresh updates on new Afrobeats developments and an interactive experience for fans to discover and connect with old and new knowledge on Afrobeats.
Speaking on the importance of this platform, Jocelyne Muhutu-Remy, Spotify’s Managing Director for Sub-Saharan Africa said:
There is no doubt that Afrobeats as a genre is here to stay, and will only continue to shatter more ceilings. In 2023 alone, the genre has been played for more than 223 million hours with streams exceeding 7.1 billion on Spotify. We created this site for both new and longtime fans of the genre, who would like to have a better understanding of how and where this explosive sound came to be.
Read Also: Spotify to unveil Supremium, its highest subscription yet, offering high-fidelity audio
The 5 pillars of Afrobeats: Journey of a Billion Streams
The platform is set to have five key pillars which include:
Origins: It will delve into the genres that paved the way for Afrobeats as we recognize it today, encompassing Afrobeat, Highlife, Juju, and various other influential styles.
Evolution: It will focus on exploring all the industry players that through their artistry and innovation, contributed to the current Afrobeats sound that has captivated the world and created a musical phenomenon that continues to thrive.
Afrobeat featuring other genres: It will focus on other genres in the African sphere that has impacted the success story of Afrobeat through their fusion. This includes genres such as Reggaeton, Amapiano, and others.
Cultural exportation: It will shed light on the cultural impact Afrobeat has had especially on countries outside Africa, either through music, food, language, and fashion.
Women of Afrobeat: It will spotlight some of the key female figures whose contributions to the industry propelled the genre to its current status as a global sensation.
Read Also: Looking for simple ways to subscribe for Spotify or Apple Music in Nigeria? Here are 3 easy options.
Other features to expect from Afrobeats: Journey of a Billion Streams platform
Playlists & Podcasts: The platform has also curated a selection of Afrobeat playlists and podcasts to promote a better understanding of the genre and to stay afloat with the happening in the space as well as interesting conversations about and with Afrobeat artists.
Games, Polls, and WordCloud: This section is just to help users have a more interactive session while still learning new knowledge of the Afrobeat genre.
Read Also: Burna Boy, Asake, Wizkid are Spotify’s most-streamed Nigerian artists in 2022
Afrobeat, garnering global recognition every second
The debate of the origin of Afrobeat has been one that Nigeria, Ghana, and South Africa have had over the years. However, according to a Spotify-commissioned research firm, Kuvora, 97% of the rest of the world believe Afrobeat came from Nigeria with 50% believing Fela is the originator of Afrobeat Genre.
Also, according to the new Afrobeat Spotify platform, the data tracking the genre’s key moment over the years started in 1998, spotlighting the duo, Kehinde ‘Kenny’ Ogungbe and Dayo Adeneye, claiming the launch of their seminal record label and TV show, Kenny’s Music and AIT Jamz, kickstarted the rise of the Afrobeats generation in Nigeria.
The report for 10 Afrobeats of all time also reflects on the significance of Nigerian music as 90% of the songs are by or featured by Nigerian artists. Since 2017, the total Afrobeats streams on Spotify alone have witnessed a remarkable 550% growth. In 2017, it has 2 billion streams but in 2022, it has garnered over 13.5 billion streams. On TikTok alone, the hashtag, Afrobeats has had over 7 billion views.
In June 2022, the American music industry’s Grammy Awards announced its plans to award a gramophone to the best African music performance at their next edition, which is a big win for the Afrobeat industry.
Technext Newsletter
Get the best of Africa’s daily tech to your inbox – first thing every morning.
Join the community now!
