Amapiano Breaks Borders: South African Genre Sees 563% Growth in Global Streams on Spotify

• Revenues generated by South African artists from Spotify alone reached nearly R200M, - three times the amount 4 years ago
• The new report was reportedly released to promote transparency and encourage artists to put their work out and generate money
• The large amount was also because amapiano streams in countries outside Sub-Saharan Africa like the UK, USA, Netherlands, Germany and Canada largely increased

Amapiano, the homegrown South African genre, has seen tremendous growth, with over 1.9 billion streams in 2022 alone. The genre has grown beyond its home borders, with streams outside of Sub-Saharan Africa growing by more than 563% on Spotify in the last two years.

Spotify promotes clarity in new report

According to a statement shared with Briefly News, the streaming giant recently released the revenues generated by South African artists. Spotify believes that artists deserve clarity about the economics of music streaming.

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Therefore, the platform launched its now annual report, Loud & Clear, to increase transparency in the music industry by sharing data on Spotify’s royalty payments and breaking down the global streaming economy, the players and the process.

The new report showed that South Africa's music genre amapiano has grown over the past few years. Not only has the revenue tripled since a few years ago, but the number of artists who made R50k and R500k on Spotify also saw a 30% increase.

It is also worth noting that a quarter of artists who bagged more than R100k are those who self-distribute their music on Spotify using distributors like DistroKid, TuneCore, CD Baby, and others.

Managing Director for Spotify Sub-Saharan Africa Jocelyne Muhutu-Remy said one of the major reasons why they released the report is to show artists that it's important to put your work out there. She said:

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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

Ambitiouz Entertainment allegedly behind DJ Zinhle and Cici's song Thula's removal from streaming platforms

In more entertainment news, Briefly News reported that controversial record label Ambitiouz Entertainment reportedly had a hand in DJ Zinhle and Cici's song Thula being removed from iTunes and Apple Music.

Ambitiouz Entertainment has a history of sabotaging its artists, especially those who leave the label. The record label allegedly went above and beyond to have DJ Zinhle and Cici's song Thula removed from streaming platforms because they had unfinished business with the star.

Source: Briefly News