These are exciting times for Afrobeats music and Nigerian artists of all genres. But still, it seems, not enormously lucrative times for that music domestically. At least, that’s the view of Muyiwa Awoniyi, who manages one of the breakout Afrobeats stars

“Do you know how much a million streams is worth out of Nigeria? It’s $300. Your one million streams in Sweden is between 8 to 10 grand,” claimed Awoniyi. “If my IP is anchored to a region where one million streams is $300, I am cooked.”

The context for this is that streaming subscription prices in Nigeria are very low: Spotify, YouTube Music and Apple Music have raised their prices in the last year, but they still only charge NGN 1,300 a month for an individual Premium subscription – that’s around $0.82.

Subscription streaming revenues in Nigeria grew by 206.4% in 2024 according to the IFPI’s Global Music Report, but the actual amount was only $5.2m. The country was ranked 57th for overall recorded-music revenues in that report with $11.1m of total revenues.

Awoniyi’s comments point to something else important, though. Successful Nigerian artists are no longer anchored to their home country or continent. Tems is a great example of that.

She has 16.2 million monthly listeners on Spotify alone, with London, Sydney and Los Angeles among her top five cities at the time of writing. She has a monthly audience of 9.8 million on YouTube Music, with New York and London her top cities for YouTube listening over the past year.

As part of its recent Loud & Clear study, Spotify said that Nigerian artists’ music generated NGN 58bn of payouts in 2024 – around $37.8m – which was up 132% year-on-year. Those payouts from a single (albeit the largest) DSP are comfortably more than triple the size of Nigeria’s entire domestic recorded-music market.

None of this is intended as a rebuttal of Awoniyi’s comments, which clearly reflect frustration at progress and payouts in Nigeria itself. The recent price rises by the three big global DSPs there suggest they see more potential to be unlocked too.

But it s useful background for the wider trend. The global appetite for music from Nigeria is exciting for the businesses of the artists who are making it – especially as they build their touring and brand partnerships alongside their recordings revenue streams.

The hard work of artists like Tems and their teams is opening paths for their peers and the next generation of Nigerian artists to follow – and ensure that they can be the ones cooking in the streaming economy, rather than being cooked.