Rahma Ahmed
By Ahmed Rahma
The opening of Spotify in Africa, especially in Nigeria, will benefit local artistes yearning for global exposure, the music app platform has assured.
The Head of Music for Sub-Saharan Africa at Spotify, Ms Phiona Okumu, said in an interview on Saturday with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) that the company was focused on engaging the local music market in Nigeria.
She noted that much attention would be given to the promotion of local contents in the music industry, adding that, “Everything we are doing right now is made for Africa.”
“I think you will notice when we roll out, you are going to see New Music Friday which is localized for Nigeria and users that are in Ghana will see New Music Friday that is localized for Ghana.
“In Kenya, it’s the same thing,” she added.
Ms Okumu, while speaking on how Spotify would help develop the music industry, said there would be more exposure for artistes and ease of music exportation with more benefits.
“The launch of Spotify in Africa means that artistes that were considered localized or not international enough as others certainly have the benefit of being exposed to over 345 million listeners around the world.
“So, now we are going to be able to share sound and stories from Nigeria.
“Stories that we once thought were only to be consumed at home, this platform gives the opportunity for those stories to be circulated all-round the globe.
“Local talents will get the credit for their stories and for their voices and for all of these things that we’re doing in the audio space,” she said.
Ms Okumu added that the Spotify app would also help artistes build their career by tracking the performance of their songs in various countries which will help in planning their tours.
“We have a tool which we call Spotify for Artistes. It helps the artistes track in real-time how their new music is performing.
“You know who their audience is if they are gaining popularity in different parts of the globe, where they are going to be successful or something like that.
“So, they are very essential tools which are going to give them just what they need to navigate a kind of a post COVID world, it is what I call it now,” she stated.
According to her, if there is a song of theirs that’s doing really well in Germany, then they know that when they are ready to go on tour again, they should 100 per cent go to this town.
“Those kinds of specific data are points for any artistes’ team that are trying to build a career for themselves,” she added.
Spotify is a digital music service that gives access to millions of songs.
