Spotify has launched Afrobeats: Culture in Motion, a global project tracing five years of the genre’s evolution and the people propelling it forward.
In the last 12 months Afrobeats has generated over 240 million discoveries on Spotify globally. The launch includes:
•Culture in Motion, a new Spotify documentary that follows the next wave of artists and captures the creative energy on the ground featuring Lasmid.
•An immersive microsite hosted on Spotify’s newsroom, For the Record, that breaks down the movement across five pillars with exclusive interviews, expert context, and fresh Spotify listening data.
What the microsite reveals:
•Sound evolution: Introspective, emotionally charged vocals now account for 38% of global Afrobeats streams.
•Latin expansion: Afrobeats listenership in Latin America grew more than 180% year over year, with Brazil up 500% since 2020.
•Women of Afrobeats: Tems is the first African female artist to surpass 1 billion Spotify streams for a single track. Ayra Starr’s streams in Nigeria are up more than 3,000% since 2020.
•Visual language: From Rema’s Benin history homage at London’s O2 Arena to Tems lighting up the Oscars and the Met Gala, the look is shaping culture as much as the sound.
•Culture and community: Fan communities are the new tastemakers, reshaping discovery in real time.
The Ghanaian Story
In Ghana, Afrobeats is having a powerful impact. The data shows that the genre is not just a global phenomenon but a local favourite:
•Ghana is streaming Afrobeats non-stop, with over 38 million plays every month this year alone.
•The country’s passion for the genre is so strong that its capital, Accra, stands among the top cities globally for Afrobeats streams, alongside hubs like London and Paris.
•The Afrobeats wave in Ghana is largely fueled by Gen Z, as listeners between the ages of 18 and 24 make up 45% of the listenership.
