Spotify has launched Afrobeats: Culture in Motion, a global project
tracing five years of the genre’s evolution and the people propelling it forward.
In the last 12 months Afrobeats has generated over 240 million discoveries on Spotify globally. The launch includes:
● Culture in Motion, a new Spotify documentary that follows the next wave of artists and captures the creative energy on the ground.
● An immersive microsite hosted on Spotify’s newsroom, For the Record, that breaks down the movement across five pillars with exclusive interviews, expert context, and fresh Spotify listening data.
What the microsite reveals:
● Sound evolution: Introspective, emotionally charged vocals now account for 38% of global Afrobeats streams.
● Latin expansion: Afrobeats listenership in Latin America grew more than 180% year over year, with Brazil up 500% since 2020.
● Women of Afrobeats: Tems is the first African female artist to surpass 1 billion Spotify streams for a single track. Ayra Starr’s streams in Nigeria are up more than 3,000% since 2020.
● Visual language: From Rema’s Benin history homage at London’s O2 Arena to Tems lighting up the Oscars and the Met Gala, the look is shaping culture as much as the sound.
● Culture and community: Fan communities are the new tastemakers, reshaping discovery in real time.
What the numbers say about Kenya:
● Listeners between the ages of 18-29 make up the bulk of Afrobeats listeners in Kenya clocking more than 12.6 million hours in the last year.
● In the last year Afrobeats generated over 1.8 million discoveries from Kenyan listeners.
● Kenyan artists like Bien and Bensoul are leaning heavy into Afrobeats inspiration with tracks like Extra Pressure, Nairobi and Ma Cherie.
● Kenya’s favourite Afrobeats artists are Davido, Ayra Starr, Asake, Burna Boy and Rema.