Spotify flows in SA’s stream

Scandinavian streaming service Spotify entered the South African market on March 13 last year and has since grown into the leading way to listen to music.

This week Spotify celebrated one year in the country by hosting a workshop for local artists and their teams to teach them how to best use the streaming service.

Hosted at The Artivist in Braamfontein – owned by DJ Kenzhero and Bradley Williams – it was also an opportunity for everyone to interact with Phiona Okumu, who recently joined the audio streaming platform as its artist and label marketing manager for Africa.

Okumu will be the primary point of contact for artists, managers, record labels and distributors, with a focus on the music community in South Africa. Okumu left Apple Music where she led editorial, label and artists relations for sub-Saharan Africa.

Heavy K. Picture: Supplied

At its birthday milestone, Spotify revealed that Nasty C is the top-streamed South African artist. He is followed by Black Coffee and David Guetta’s Drive, which features Delilah Montagu.

It has more than 25 million worldwide streams on Spotify for the radio-edit version. Second most popular is Collide from Lady Zamar with AKA’s Fela In Versace in third spot.

IN TOP 10 Jeremy Loops

At its launch South Africa joined 64 other countries already enjoying the Spotify experience. The streaming service is now available in 79 countries, including in the Middle East, north Africa and India.

It offers a global community of more than 200 million music fans access to more than 40 million tracks.

THE BOSS Spotify’s director for the Middle East and Africa, Claudius Boller

Claudius Boller, Spotify’s managing director for the Middle East and Africa, said: “Our first year in South Africa has been extremely exciting and we have been thrilled by the response from music fans.

“Our launch in the country – our first African market – gave us the opportunity to offer local music fans access to a world of new music and genres, as well as giving local artists the opportunity to connect with a global audience of music fans on Spotify.

“We have had a fantastic first year in South Africa and want to thank all of the artists, labels and music fans who have been on the journey with us so far,” said Boller.

“We are very excited about what the future holds.”