Spotify – a proprietary Swedish audio streaming and media services provider has currently underlined its key commitment to bringing African music to the world’s ears with its current addition of six of the continent’s brightest and emerging stars to its RADAR program.
What is Spotify RADAR?
“Given how much of an impact the RADAR program’s already had on the African artists who’ve participated in it to date, we’re thrilled to be able to introduce a fresh cohort of artists and expand the programme”, Phiona Okumu, Head of Music, Spotify Africa said.
Launched in 2020, Spotify RADAR is designed to support emerging artists by assisting them have their music unveiled on a global platform and deepen their connection to new audiences across all stages of their careers.
Spotify currently has over 422 million monthly active users – this includes 182 million paying subscribers, as of March 2022.
Why Africa?
Following the introduction of African talents like Elaine, Willy Cardiac, Tems and Focalistic, who all joined the cohort in 2020 and were exposed to new global fan communities on the platform giving their music and sound a global recognition and acceptance, all parties have had a sum total of 8.2 million (8,276,261) streams across the streaming platform.
Okumu further added that the addition of Ayra Starr, Victony, BNXN, DBN GOGO, Buruklyn Boyz and Black Sherif were an avenue to provide the six talents with the necessary resources that will help them elevate their careers and gain thousands of new fans around the globe.
In addition to the on-platform support that RADAR offers African artists, it also provides off-platform support in the shape of shows and events highlighting artists selected for the programme.
RADAR’s artist selection is informed by a combination of data and editorial decision making, with each local team being given the autonomy to choose the artist who makes sense for their region. Spotify will always be an instrumental driver in African artists entering the world stage and reaching audiences outside of their home markets.
RADAR will continue to help emerging artists increase their streams and introduce them to audiences they may otherwise not have been able to discover.
