A couple of days ago, Daniel Ek, the co-
founder of Spotify, one of the world’s
leading music streaming platforms,
announced at its online-only Stream On the
event that it would be expanding to 85 new
markets across Africa, Asia, Europe, Latin
America, and the Caribbean.
Spotify also announced that it would offer
both Spotify Free and Spotify Premium
plans. Individual, Family, Duo, and Student
Spotify plans will be available in selected
markets. Listeners in new markets will get
to access Spotify on mobile apps and in
the browser. Apps for TV, consoles,
speakers, wearables, and cars will be
launched later in the year. The main aim of
this expansion is to acquire a billion more
users.
Before this announcement, the premium
streaming service had only been available
in 9 countries: Europe, the Americas,
Oceania, some parts of Africa, and Asia.
Despite being the biggest exporter of
music in Africa, Nigeria was one of the
countries that had no access to this
streaming platform.
The Nigerian music streaming market has
key streaming platforms like Audiomack,
Youtube Music, Apple Music, Shazam,
Deezer, and others like Boomplay and MTN
MusicTime, enabling Nigerians to stream
with ease and you can also make money
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streaming music on this platforms.
Only those who are a bit tech-savvy can
bypass the restrictions and enjoy the
Spotify streaming service’s benefits. It’s
easy as pie. Download a good Vpn for
changing your IP address, change your
country/location, and you are good to go.
However, with this latest development, the
stress of carrying such a tedious procedure
is no longer necessary. This is good news
that would undoubtedly take the already
booming Nigerian music industry to a new
level.
What is Spotify?
Spotify is a Swedish audio streaming
company owned by Spotify AB, a publicly-
traded company based in Luxembourg,
Europe. Its global headquarters are in
Stockholm, Sweden and its corporate
headquarters in New York City. The
platform offers digital copyright restricted
recorded music and podcasts, including
more than 60 million songs, from record
labels and media companies.
The basic features are free with
advertisements and limited control, while
additional features, such as offline listening
and commercial-free listening, are offered
via paid subscriptions. Users of the
platform can search for songs based on
artiste, album, or genre and create, edit,
and share playlists.
What does this new development really
mean for the Nigerian music industry?
The Nigerian music industry remains the
biggest producers of music in the Africa
continent, and every year, it keeps getting
better. From the quality of music
production, collaborations to music videos,
the Nigerian music industry is now
competitive and the most sought after in
Africa.
Spotify was not available in Nigeria for
years because they had not acquired the
necessary rights and permission they
needed from record labels to provide all the
songs from Nigerian artistes that would
guarantee them more Spotify users and
also for them to make enough money via
local ads in Nigeria.
The availability of Spotify in the industry is
advantageous in several ways. It serves as
a medium for the untapped audience of
Nigerian music to be exposed.
The
platform has more than 345 million
monthly active users, and over 155 million
paid subscribers globally.
This is enough to give Nigerian artistes
more recognition and attention on an
international scale. Users worldwide can
comfortably listen, enjoy, and discover
more unique sounds peculiar to Nigerian
music.
This brings about recognition for
collaborations, shout outs for awards,
creating a larger fanbase, and not just
restricted to the top shots but also the
upcoming acts.
Some Nigerian acts have received more
recognition due to their presence on the
streaming platform. In August 2019, Wizkid
made history on Spotify as the first African
artist to reach 8 million monthly listeners
on the streaming platform.
In 2019, The self-acclaimed African Giant,
Burna Boy, surpassed Wizkid in November
by amassing over 8 million listeners
monthly after the success of his album. He
still holds the African artiste’s title with the
highest number of monthly listeners, Mr
Eazi follows with over 5 million, and Wizkid
currently has over 4 million listeners. Other
Nigerian artists with huge numbers on
Spotify include
Davido, Maleek Berry,
Tekno, Yemi Alade, Tiwa Savage, Rema,
Patornaking, etc.
Asides from sharing their music via the
platform, Spotify also makes it easy for
some artists to gain more recognition with
content like interviews, articles, Spotlight
features, playlists, etc. Think of it as a free
promotion.
An artiste can also happily smile at the
bank as Spotify is one of the highest
paying streaming platforms after Tidal ,
Deezer, Apple Music . Digital music
consumption has taken over physical
music revenue in Nigeria, and its growth
has remained healthy and steady.
Artistes would be able to earn more money
easily and be more established. It also
helps solo artistes as there is a reduction
in the suffocating 360 record labels that
result in scandals. When there is an
adequate supply of revenue in the industry,
it gives room for more investment and
boosts the industry and the economy at
large.
Spotify in Nigerian music is sure to make
great changes, and it might just be that big
change that Nigeria needs to step up on a
global scale. We can only keep our fingers
crossed.
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