"A Kenyan creator who is not on Spotify can reach 345 million active users and with the use of AI and the human touch with RADAR, your tracks can get picked out from those millions and millions of tracks on the platform." We have opportunities to help artists develop their live shows, do merch drops and press and media." Their names are kept anonymous to avoid undue influence:"We see a talent or a genre and ask who can we select from there? We also look for some potential with other global playlist editors. RADAR is a group of people who spot music and talent for Spotify in Africa. It's why Burna Boy is such a success story and is about to receive a Grammy Award." "Different communities are adapting the sound for themselves and there's a fusion of cultures and sounds that's very organic. Focalistic started just in South Africa but has now become so familiar. RADAR identifies and amplifies that culture. Before it was an underground Township genre, now it has gone mainstream. We did an education piece on playlisting across Africa and P-Diddy is dancing to Focalistic. Fast forward one and a half years later and we have a programme called RADAR promoting new music. "I sought out that community and met with labels and artists and said we can pay the creators.
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Free downloads were traded on WhatsApp but it was music that was put together quickly before concerts as a way of publicizing the concerts." It was the sort of music that was not available. Users were making a lot of searches for it and couldn't find it. Talent and identification has already happened in South Africa where it has had a presence since 2018:"The fastest growing music genre is Amapiano. In time, advertisers like Coca Cola and beer brands might support this kind of innovative content. Also as African radio broadcasters think harder about podcasts, they offer a channel for certain kinds of material, both at a country and sub-regional level. If Spotify gets a large following in Sub-Saharan Africa, it has the potential to be a new channel for reaching audiences across the continent. These exist in Sub-Saharan Africa but most are not really very high-profile. Up until now, Spotify has billed itself as an "audio channel" and has put a lot of effort into acquiring quality podcasts. Spotify playlists will work a lot more quickly on a continent-wide basis with the process of talent identification and validation.
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TV broadcast programmers need to know what music has "audience pull" when they think about acquiring music videos and who the TV stations interview. The expansion of music streaming service Spotify into Sub-Saharan Africa matters for four reasons:Īs the interview below illustrates, Spotify will be a very strong channel for identifying new music and genres that are 'below the radar' and promoting them continent-wide. Russell Southwood spoke to Phiona Okumu, Head of Music (Sub-Saharan Africa), Spotify about its plans. London - After a long period with a presence just in South Africa, one of the world's most high-profile music streamers, Spotify has expanded across Sub-Saharan Africa.