Nigerian Artists Making Waves in Music Industry

Nigerian artists are breaking through into the mainstream music industry and a study from the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI) showed that sub-Saharan Africa was the fastest-growing recorded music region in 2023 for the second straight year, via Global Music Report.

The report, which was released back in April of this year, saw that Music from Africa continued to have a significant global impact in 2023, and was the only region globally to surpass20% growth, with revenues up 24.7% year over year, primarily driven by paid streaming revenues, which grew 24.5% year over year.

A big example of this is Nigerian superstar Rema, who joined the ‘Billions Club’ on Spotify with his hit Calm Down Remix (Mavin / Jonzing World/ Virgin Music) featuring global music sensation Selena Gomez (Interscope).

South African star Tyla rode a viral TikTok hit a peak of 7 on the Billboard Top 100 charts in January of this year after debuting at #67 in October 2023.

Shallipopi is one of the new stars making noise in the global music landscape, and many are being discovered on social media.

“I use Twitter, TikTok, Instagram ads,” AfroReekAH, an unsigned young musician based in Nigeria said, according to The Guardian. “To get listeners, I also use Spotify, Audiomack, Apple Music, and then pitch for editorial playlists on all these streaming services,” she added. “The dream is what keeps me going where I want to be. But it can be very discouraging,”

But money and costs for marketing and content is big hurdle for many new and up-and-coming artists.

“Money is always going to be a factor,” breakout Nigerian rapper Odumodublvck said. “It’s a matter of going head to head against the game and looking for anything that you can use to break through,” he says. “Like me now, when I started music, I didn’t have money to pay for billboards. So what did I do? I used spray paint. Just find a way.”

Excel Joab, an A&R manager for west Africa at Awal had some input for rising African artists.

“Not everyone will immediately come to you and say, ‘Hey, you sound nice, take some money.’ That’s not how the business works. So yes, you’re talented. Yes, you got something that means it going on.

“Always ask yourself, how can I make this more valuable? Once you have built value, money will find you.”