African music is rising really fast on Apple Music

Stephen Simiyu of Uganda’s prize winning entry to the Africa 2016 Photo Competition

I’ve just spent the day listening to a plethora of fantastic music from African musicians thanks to Apple Music. No surprise, then, to learnt that streams of African tracks on Apple Music have grown at a rate four times that of overall streams on the service, according to MusicAlly and Apple.

Africa is rising on Apple Music

It is also interesting that Shazams of African songs have grown twice as fast over the last year as Shazams of other forms of music, according to data shared by Apple’s music service.

Apple apparently shared the information in praise of a new album from African artist Burna Boy, who Apple has been promoting for a while, naming him the Up Next artist in 2019. That album has topped the chart in 69 nations with tracks taken from it breaking into the top 100 globally. The artist spoke with Apple’s Zane Lowe before the release of the album (below).

“What a fantastic achievement it is by Burna Boy to become the first international artist to take Afrobeats to the top of the UK’s Official Albums Chart,” Official Charts Company CEO Martin Talbot said.

“British music fans have always been renowned for their love of new music and embracing cultures from around the world, and the explosion of interest in Afrobeats’ musical culture over the past decade has been a concrete example of this. It has been fantastic to see Burna Boy blazing the trail as part of this – and this week reaching the absolute pinnacle. Congratulations to Burna Boy!”

African sunrise

Apple has been putting a lot of weight behind Africa’s music scene. In 2020, the company introduced an Africa-focused music show on Apple Music.

Apple-owned Platoon service (which will take over management of the company’s recently purchased classical label, Bis), has also been active in Africa. CEO Denzyl Feigelson in 2020 told Billboard about what his company had been doing in Africa, saying it is “Offering advances, distribution and support to 88 African musicians — and quietly becoming a major player amid an industry wide shift toward establishing a larger footprint on the continent”.

It doesn’t hurt when the music’s so great.

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