Several international music labels have sent their A&R to the African continent to find talent amidst the success of artists like Burna Boy, Wizkid and Tems.
PwC had forecasted that Nigeria will be among the fastest-growing Entertainment and Media industry globally. In their report they said the country will earn $14.8bn in 2025, up from its current revenue of $7.7bn, riding on an 85% growth of its internet access segment.
More specific to music, Statista projected that Nigeria’s music market grew from 26 million U.S. dollars in 2014 to 34 million U.S. dollars in 2018, and that by 2023 the revenue is expected to reach 44 million U.S. dollars.
Nigeria and the wider music industry
As far back as 2014, JAY-Z sent his cousin, Briant Biggs on the hunt for talent in the motherland after meeting with Nigerian rapper, Ice Prince at ROC Nation’s office in 2014.
Outside of the African continent artists like Davido, Wizkid, Tiwa Savage, and Burna Boy have signed deals with the major record labels known as the ‘Big Three’. Realizing that Nigeria us churning out hits at a fast pace, the international labels have gone beyond recording and distribution partnerships and have set up subsidiaries within the continent for Artist & Repertoire (A&R) support and funding, licensing, publishing and recording deals.
Along with key market research, their latest interest in Nigeria is heightened by the visibility and success of Burna, Wizkid and Tems.
Burna Boy’s 2022 album Love, Damini debuted at No. 2 on the U.K. Charts and debuted at No. 14 on the Billboard 200 chart after selling 25,000 units in the United States in its first week. He has the distinction of having the highest charting album of all time by a Nigerian.
Burna Boy
Burna Boy also made the Billboard Hot 100 for the first time as a solo or lead artist, with Last Last entering at No. 86. and climbing 14 spots this week to No. 72.
He has ruled the U.S. Afrobeats chart with Last Last for the past 7 weeks. His other singles For My Handf eat. Ed Sheeran peaked at No. 2 and Toni Ann Singh featuring dancehall deejay Popcaan peaked at No. 14.
Tems
Tems made history as the first from her 200 million strong country to debut at No. 1 on Billboard’s Hot 100singles chart. Her first chart topper is via a feature on Future’s ‘Wait For U” which also features Drake.
“Wait For U” samples Tem’s “Higher” which was released last July. The track is produced by Oddio and was one of the standouts on her 2020 EP, ‘For Broken Ears.’
Future tweeted, “Soon as I heard the @temsbaby sample over @atljacobbeatz Instantly connected to my soul.”
He also thanked Tems publicly for her inspiration and said he still gave her credit as a feature even though it was a sample.
Tems was also recently featured on Beyonce’s Renaissance album on the track Move. She also covered the Marley classic “No Woman No Cry” for the Black Panther Soundtrack.
Wizkid
Wizkid’s Made In Lago was certified gold last week by the RIAA for surpassing 500,000 units in the US.
The lead track for the album Essence featuring Tems is also the first African song to be certified 2x Platinum (2,000,000) by the RIAA giving the 32 year old the record of having both the best selling African album and best selling African song in the US.
Made in Lagos tracklist
The 14 track album also features Damian Marley, H.E.R, Burna Boy, Ella Mai, Skepta, and Terri. Other stand out features includeTrue Love featuring Jamaican singer Projexx and Nigerian singer Tay Iwar which has sold more than 100,000 units in the US.
Industry ReportIFPI’sglobal music reportstates that the global music industry made USD$25.9 billion last year(2021) with the three major labels clocking $4 billion more than they made the previous year (2020).Sir Lucian Grainge, one of the most powerful men in musicand his company, Universal Music Group after scoring huge profits in 2021, credited streaming and other entertainment activities for the remarkable year.
“In addition to strong performance in streaming, we drove new areas of opportunity for our artists – ranging from merchandise to brand management, sponsorship, e-commerce, and film & television. And we expanded our partner portfolio into emerging growth areas such as health and fitness, Web3 and social video,” he said.
As Universal Music claims the bigger market share, Grange predicted further growth in the industry.
“We see the industry continuing to grow and – with our unique experience, our deep understanding of the business and the vast artist relationships and global creative networks – we expect to further strengthen our position as the industry leader as we continue to break new artists and build on our world-class catalogue.”- Grange
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