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 when you go to Playamo Casino while 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.