Music streaming giant, Spotify celebrates first year anniversary in Nigeria as it revealed how music lovers streamed Nigerian music locally and internationally.

Phiona Okumu, Spotify’s Head of Music in Sub-Saharan Africa revealed this on Thursday in a statement made available to newsmen in Lagos.

” Its been one year since music streaming giant, Spotify launched in over 40 new markets across the continent, including Nigeria.

” 365 days in, we are already seeing Nigerian music lovers discovering more music, local artists finding a megaphone for their work, and Nigerian genres getting exported across the globe.

” As Nigerians have become more familiar with Spotify, they have used the platform more and broadened their tastes.

” Since the launch, the average number of artists streamed per user has grown by 60 per cent and Nigerian music fans have created 1.3 million user-generated playlists,” she said.

Okumu said Nigerian artists dominated the local music scene, with artists such as WizKid, Burna Boy, DaVido, Buju (now known as BNXN) and Olamide topping the list of five most streamed local artists.

According to her, Some local artists had found a megaphone for their work, and the top exported local artists are Ckay, followed by WizKid, then Burna Boy, Tems is the fourth top exported local artist and Mr Eazi rounds off the top five.

She said coming in as the most streamed song in Nigeria is Fireboy DML’s Peru, followed by Monalisa by Lojay and Sarz, then Feeling by Buju and LADIPOE in third.

Omah Lay’s Understand was the fourth most streamed track, with High by Adekunle Gold closing off the top five local songs.

” Of the 10 exported songs, nine are collaborations with local and international hitmakers – proof that Nigerian music is attracting worldwide popularity.

” Love Nwantiti by CKay is the top exported song, followed by Essence, a collaboration between WizKid and Tems, next is a remix of Love Nwantiti and Essence by CKay and WizKid with international artists such as Justin Bieber, DJ Yo, and Axel.

” Most of the plays of the exported songs have come from countries such as the Czech Republic, India, Canada, Ghana, Morocco, Tanzania, and the United Kingdom.

Okumu noted that since the launch, there had been 20,935 songs added to the Spotify platform by creators, which placed Nigeria as the country with the second most streamed after Pakistan, with Kenya third in the ranking.

On the user generated playlists, she said the Spotify playlist that Nigerians showed the most love was Hot Hits Naija, which really portrays the fact that Nigerians loved homegrown music.

” Lagos the entertainment capital of Nigeria is still living up to its title as the top city where Nigerians streamed from. Other cities are Kano, FCT, Niger, and Rivers.

” Goya Menor claimed the top spot on the list of emerging artists, while the most popular local genre is Afropop from Nigeria.

” Worldwide Nigerian music is growing in popularity, too, data on local genres being exported across the globe reveals that 30 per cent of the Nigerian Alte genre is being streamed in the United States of America, with a growth of more than 200 per cent over the past year.

” Additionally, over 40 per cent of Afropop from Nigeria is streamed in the United States of America, United Kingdom and France,” she said.