For Longevity, Afrobeats Artistes Need to Be Business Savvy, Says Phiona Okumu
Recently, top executives of the global music streaming platform Spotify was in Nigeria to celebrate one of the country’s greatest exports, Afrobeats. The two-day visit featured talks and tours and culminated in a one-of-a-kind afrobeats concert. Vanessa Obioha chats with Spotify’s Head of Music Sub-Saharan Africa, Phiona Okumu, on the success of Afrobeats, its subgenres and ultimately, the advantages of technology in the music business
One of the exciting news that emerged from your platform this year is that Rema hit the one billion stream mark on your platform. What would you say are those unique elements of afrobeats that continue to resonate with audiences globally?
Well, number one I think that there is a joyous nature about Afrobeats. It’s very rare. I’ve never heard a super sad afrobeats song even if there is sometimes a bit of contemplation or an introverted message in the lyrics, there’s still something about happiness in there. So that’s something that will always make it universally appealing. It’s accessible. It’s kind of easy to understand. That accessibility is what makes other genres think that this could be good music for us to marry with our music because it’s that open. Even though we call it afrobeats, it’s many things. There are the traditional aspects of it, sometimes it’s R&B influenced or hip hop influenced or dancehall influenced. That makes it a kind of everybody’s type of music. It is just very universally appealing all around.
What emerging subgenres of afrobeats do you see gaining traction, and how are they pushing boundaries creatively?
It’s not necessarily a genre, but a movement, which I think we really should be giving a lot more credit to. It is the alté. The reason why I say this is and I hope this doesn’t sound controversial, but afrobeats is cool now. It’s stylish. I very much remember a time when it was only us who thought it was cool. Now, the thing about the little alté kids is that they very much push how they are; what marks their own little subculture is the fashion aspect. And I truly believe that has influenced a lot of the big afrobeats artistes. For sure, I know that Rema is influenced by alté. I know that someone like Tems comes much more from the alté side than afrobeats. So for me, I feel like these subgenres have always existed and that’s how culture works. It’s never just everything all at once. It waves everyone’s attention to it depending on the mood, the spirit of the culture, and so forth. It’s great to see that. One thing we know for sure is at some point in time whatever music we like, potentially gets its time in the sun.
In curating a dedicated website, ‘Afrobeats: A Journey of a Billion Streams’ for the genre, have you in any way achieved the goals of that initiative?
I think we have. The vision of it is twofold. It’s for two different audiences: the fans of the music, who might necessarily either be new to it and want to get a primer on it, or those who have always been fans of it and just kind of reminisce on all of the things that have happened within it. But also, I think it’s important to be able to help creators tell the story. And as our artistes start to break out and become international stars, people are going to be curious about them. I always like to use Drake as an example. One of the reasons why a person like Drake is so popular is because we almost feel like we know his story. That kind of familiarity is really great for creators. And so this site is again there to be able to tell from our perspective as African people the story of this really successful emerging genre to the rest of the world so that they understand where we’re coming from.
What do you believe are the prospects and opportunities for African music to continue its global influence?
Authenticity is important. Okay. There’s a reason why they like our music. So we shouldn’t compromise on it. And by compromise, I don’t mean we shouldn’t collaborate, we should always collaborate. But we must always maintain the aspects of our essence that make us because otherwise, we will sound like someone else. And if we sound like someone else, then what makes us stand out? We must also absolutely get the business of it. The opportunities and attention are here. But as creators, whether it’s artistes, labels or managers, we need to be a little bit smarter. And from a Spotify point of view, for example, If you’re an artiste, we have this app called Spotify for artistes. And when you go to that app as an artiste, and you have a profile there, you release a song. The app can track where your music is being listened to, and the demographic of the people listening to your music. And why that is important is that it lets you know where your audience is and you can plan doing shows there or selling merch or collaborating with artistes from there. It’s a very efficient way of driving your own demand. Before we had these kinds of tools, it was a guesswork. It’s things like that, that I feel we need to be smart about. Yes, the attention and interest are there. For longevity, we have to be able to make a living from the music.
Considering the substantial N11 billion in revenue generated by Nigerian artistes from Spotify, as reported in ‘Loud & Clear,’ can you provide more insight on how technology and data analytics are shaping the future of music streaming within the afrobeats genre?
The story of amapiano is the best way to explain this because it’s a recent example. I wasn’t in South Africa, but I had just started working at Spotify. And I remember having two perspectives. On the platform, there were a few amapiano songs. And then in real life, in a face-to-face experience what I was hearing was that this music was popping off. The platform wasn’t really reflecting what was happening and what was happening was that amapiano producers would make this song on Monday, then test it repeatedly. If it gets some traction, it will be able to give them a gig on that same Saturday. So there was a cycle and that’s part of the origin story of amapiano. They were not really thinking of streaming. This was before COVID. The moment COVID hit. Then you don’t have gigs on Saturdays. With that, I saw an opportunity to really demonstrate that guys, it’s not only in the club that you can make money. Come to streaming, start distributing your music here, and your royalties become what you eat. Nobody had that opportunity. Everybody had no choice but to focus their attention on how to generate money using digital tools, and it’s worked and it’s working, and it’s going to continue to work because music streaming is going nowhere. Streaming is becoming the way that everyone primarily consumes music. It’s not everyone everywhere in Africa yet, but that time is coming. Once that starts to happen, then you will start to see even more streaming revenue generated because everybody will have no choice but to listen from the app. That is the most basic way that I can explain why technology is good for the music business.
