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Entertainment of Wednesday, 24 March 2021

Source: www.sunnewsonline.com

Spotify ‘committed to empowering African creators’

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Spotify, the digital music, podcast and video-streaming service that gives access to millions of songs and other content from artistes all over the world, has been launched in Africa.

In a chat with Daily Sun, Phiona Okumu, head of music, Spotify, sub-Saharan Africa, said the company was committed to empowering African creators both the new, the rising, and the icons.

She said, “Spotify powers 16 billion artiste discoveries every month, meaning 16 billion times a month, fans listen to an artist they have never heard before on Spotify. We’re proud of that and are actively refining our algorithms to enable even more fan discoveries of new artistes each month.

“With the launch of Spotify in Africa, the artistes can benefit from exposure to wider audiences not only in Nigeria but all over the globe, as they become part of the global Spotify content system.”

She said, Spotify has built a culture powerhouse playlist like African Heat, which features a diversity of African talent and is an explosion of African sounds and culture, creating a space for African creators to showcase their music to a global audience driving discovery.

“This playlist is open to all artistes regardless of their genre and size, and the beauty here is that it will connect artistes in Africa to fans inside and outside of the continent.”

She noted that, as part of Spotify’s ongoing commitment to building a truly borderless audio ecosystem, it will be available in 80+ new markets around the world: “It’s no secret our long-term goal is to be available in every market. Today we are available in 30+ new African markets and more will be launching over the coming days.”

On curation of music or songs in each country she said, “Our editors are looking to create the best listening experience for our users, drawing from their expertise and cultural knowledge to develop playlists that tap into a deep connection between listeners and music. But at the end of the day, it’s a matter of how the music fans respond to the music.

“Our editors form hypotheses for each of our curated playlists and we try to serve users with the best listening experience for users within that context. This requires constant tweaking, adding, and removing tracks to keep the experience fresh— their decisions are backed up by data that we get from the fans listening and engaging with the music.”