Recently, top executives from global music streaming platform Spotify were in Nigeria to celebrate one of the country’s biggest exports, Afrobeats. The two-day tour included lectures and field trips and ended with a one-of-a-kind Afrobeats concert. Vanessa Obioha talks to Phiona Okumu, Music Director for Sub-Saharan Africa at Spotify, about the good luck of Afrobeats, their subgenres, and ultimately the benefits of generation in the music industry.
One of the exciting news to come out of their platform this year is that Rema reached the one billion streams mark on their platform. What do you think are those elements of Afrobeats that continue to resonate with audiences around the world?
Well, first of all, I think there’s a joyful nature to Afrobeats. It’s very rare. I’ve never heard a super sad afrobeats song, even if there’s rarely a bit of contemplation or an introverted message in the lyrics, there’s still some happiness in it. So that’s anything that makes it universally appealing. It’s accessible. It’s pretty straightforward to understand. That accessibility is what makes other genres think it could be smart music to pair with ours because it’s so open. Even though we call it Afrobeats, it’s about a lot of things. There are classic aspects, it’s rarely influenced through the R
What Afrobeats subgenres do you think are gaining traction and how are they creatively pushing boundaries?
It’s not necessarily a genre, but it is a movement that I think we really deserve to give a lot more credit to. It’s the adjustment. The explanation why I say this is, and I hope this doesn’t sound controversial, that afrobeats are trendy now. It is elegant. I don’t quite forget a time when it was just us who thought it was cool. Now, the thing about young children is that they actually put pressure on who they are; What marks their small subculture is the fashion aspect. And I actually think he influenced a lot of wonderful Afrobeat artists. By the way, I know that Rema is influenced by the adjustment. I know that someone like Tems comes much more from the alternative aspect than from Afrobeats. So for me, I feel like those subgenres have existed and that’s how culture works. It’s never about everything at once. Capture everyone’s attention based on mood, cultural zeitgeist, etc. It’s wonderful to see that. One thing we know for sure is that, at some point, any music we love has a chance to have its time in the sun.
By creating a committed website, “Afrobeats: A Journey of a Billion Streams” for the genre, have you in any way achieved the goals of this initiative?
I guess. The vision is twofold. It’s aimed at two other audiences: music enthusiasts, who are possibly necessarily new to it and need to know more, or those who have been enthusiastic about it and just don’t forget everything that happened within it. But I also think it’s vital to be able to help creators tell the story. And as our artists begin to make a call for themselves and become foreign stars, other people will be curious about them. I like to use Drake. com as an example. One of the reasons someone like Drake is so popular is that we almost feel like we know his story. That kind of familiarity is really wonderful for creators. That’s why this site is here to be able to tell it, from our attitude as Africans. , the story of this kind of success reaches the rest of the world so that they understand where we come from.
In your opinion, what are the opportunities for African music to continue its global influence?
Authenticity is vital. Alright. There is an explanation why they like our music. So we deserve not to give in on this. And by commitment, I don’t mean that we deserve not to collaborate, we deserve to collaborate. But we will have to preserve the facets of our essence that make us up because otherwise we will look like someone else. And if we look like someone else, what makes us different? Surely it is also mandatory to capture it. The opportunities and attention are there. But as creators, whether artists, labels or managers, we want to be a little wiser. And from Spotify’s perspective, for example: if you’re an artist, we have this app called Spotify for Artists. And when you go to this app as an artist and you have a profile there, you publish a song. The app can track where your music is being paid attention to and the demographics of other people who are paying attention to your music. And the reason this is vital is that it will allow you to know where your audience is and you will be able to plan exhibitions there, sell products or collaborate with artists there. This is a very effective way to satisfy your own request. Before we had those kinds of tools, it was guesswork. These are things like that that I think we need to be cautious about. Yes, the attention and interest are there. To last, you have to be able to make a living with music.
Considering the truly hefty profits of billions of naira generated through Spotify’s Nigerian artists, as reported in “Loud
The amapiano hitale is the most productive way to explain this because it is a recent example. I wasn’t in South Africa, but I had just started working at Spotify. And I don’t forget to have two perspectives. Some amapiano songs were heard on the stage. And then in genuine life, in a face-to-face experience, what I heard was this loud music. The platform didn’t actually reflect what was happening and what was happening was that the makers of Amapiano were making this song on Monday and then they tested it several times. If he gains a little popularity, he will be able to offer them a concert on the same Saturday. So there was a cycle and this is part of the story of the origin of amapiano. They weren’t really thinking about transmission. This was before COVID. The moment COVID arrived. So you don’t have concerts on Saturday. With this, I saw an opportunity to show that, guys, you can’t make money not only in a club. Come streaming, start distributing your music here and your royalties will become what you eat. Nobody had this opportunity. Everyone still had no option to focus their attention on how to make money using virtual tools, and it worked, and will continue to work because streaming music is going nowhere. Streaming fits the way everyone primarily consumes music. This is not yet the case for everyone in Africa, but the time is coming. Once this starts working, start to see even more streaming profits generated because everyone still won’t have the option to pay attention from the app. This is the most basic way to explain why the generation is smart for the music industry.
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