Johannesburg – Spotify, the prominent global music streaming platform, has unveiled remarkable growth for amapiano, the indigenous South African musical genre, amassing more than 1.9 billion streams in the previous year.
This revelation comes from Spotify’s annual report, Loud & Clear, which seeks to enhance transparency within the music industry by disseminating data concerning Spotify’s royalty disbursements and dissecting the worldwide streaming economy, its stakeholders, and the underlying processes.
Over recent years, South African artists have gained increasing international recognition, resulting in substantial opportunities for creative individuals.
The reach of the amapiano genre has extended beyond its national borders, with streams originating from outside sub-Saharan Africa experiencing a surge of more than 563% on Spotify during the past two years.
The revenue generated by South African artists solely from Spotify in the previous year has neared R200 million, a threefold increase compared to four years ago.
Jocelyne Muhutu-Remy, Spotify’s Managing Director for sub-Saharan Africa, stated, “Our continued commitment at Spotify is to ensure that professional artists can make a living from their art. By releasing the revenues that South African artists generated on our platform in 2022, we are not only keeping ourselves accountable but also showing artists that it does pay to put your art out into the world.”
Spotify’s music income originates from two primary sources: subscription fees from premium users and earnings from advertisements on the free tier.
It’s crucial to note that nearly 70% of this revenue is redistributed as royalties to rights holders, who in turn remunerate artists and songwriters based on established terms. These rights holders encompass record labels, publishers, independent distributors, performance rights organizations, and collecting societies.
Amapiano has garnered listeners in countries outside sub-Saharan Africa, including the UK, US, Netherlands, Germany, and Canada.
The music streaming paradigm has also facilitated a degree of democratization within the music industry, propelling such growth.
Spotify is steadfast in its mission to provide African creators with earnings from their artistic endeavors by connecting them with over 550 million active users on the platform, thereby introducing new audiences and increasing streams for artists.
Transparency regarding the economic landscape of music streaming is deemed vital for artists.
The streaming platform additionally celebrates the ascent of female powerhouses within the genre. Although strides remain to be made, the breakthrough of female amapiano artists serves as a testament to the potential for progress and transformation within the creative sphere.
