Earlier this month, I came across a post on Music Ally that caught my attention. It says that, according to IFPI’s Global Music Report, subscription streaming revenues [across all platforms] in Nigeria grew by 206.4% to $5.2 million in 2024.

The report also ranked Nigeria 57th globally for overall recorded music revenues, with total revenue sitting at $11.1 million. This is making it here because I rarely see hard numbers when it comes to the actual value of Nigeria’s recorded music market, especially in official global reports like IFPI’s. Most of the time, I’ve only had access to the free version of the report, which mostly focuses on the top 10 global markets.

The full version, which I understand is typically reserved for IFPI partners and more established industry stakeholders, dives deeper into smaller markets and provides more granular information. I’ve been trying to find more consistent access to that part of the report, but in the meantime, this Music Ally reveal was a welcome surprise.

I’ll definitely revisit this once I get my hands on the full report and can dig in properly. For now, I just wanted to put this out there.

Of course, you might be wondering how did the entire Nigerian music market generate just $11.1 million, according to IFPI, when Spotify alone says it paid out around $39.6 million to Nigerian artists in 2024?

The difference is that IFPI reports focus strictly on domestic consumption; meaning music revenue generated within Nigeria’s borders across all platforms. It includes things like local streaming, downloads, and physical sales that happen inside a particular country.

Spotify’s figure, on the other hand, reflects global consumption. That $39.6 million includes streams from the U.S., UK, France, South Africa, everywhere Nigerian artists are being played, not just within Nigeria. So, while it may seem like a contradiction, it’s actually just two different data lenses.

With this figure in mind, however, a gentle reminder from IFPI’s earlier (free) report;

Sub-Saharan Africa recorded a 22.6% increase in music revenues in 2024, surpassing $100 million for the first time to hit $110 million. South Africa alone accounted for 74.6% of that total, following 14.4% YoY growth.

Source: IFPI

This means Nigeria’s $11 million pales in comparison to South Africa’s estimated $82 million in recorded music revenues generated locally in 2024.

Based on streams generated locally in same 2024, Nigeria (over 2.4 billion streams) outpaced South Africa’s 1.9 billion streams across the top 900 most-streamed tracks on Spotify in both regions.

Most-streamed songs on Spotify by Nigerians in 2024

But as we know, stream count and actual revenue generated are usually two separate conversations, and while stream volumes can be great, what ultimately determines how healthy a market is, is the amount of revenue it generates locally.

Serendipitously, I’m coming up with this post just at the wrap of the first half of 2025 (H1 2025); which has seen Nigeria already hit over 1.7 billion streams (about a 78% increase from last year’s 951m streams around same time), while South Africa claims over 700 million streams (marking a (-)36% decrease compared to this time last year); both across nearly 600 songs.

Nigeria

Most-streamed songs by Nigerians, H1 2025

South Africa

Most-streamed songs by South Africans, H1 2025

South Africa seems to be seeing a drop in streaming activity lately. I wonder what could be the reason.

So, I don’t always fancy pulling up population figures, but for curiosity’s sake, South Africa has a population of around 63 million, compared to Nigeria’s publicized 200 million. Now, despite such wide population gap, South Africa still generates about seven times more local music revenue than Nigeria.

It kind of reminds me of the U.S. and India situation, where India rivals the U.S. in stream volume, thanks to its massive population of over one billion, compared to the U.S.'s 340 million. The current most-followed artist on Spotify is Arijit Singh, an Indian act with over 150 million followers.

He has more following on the platform than global acts like Drake, Taylor Swift etc; and peep how his most-listened to cities are all local.

But still, India dropped a spot in IFPI’s global rankings for 2024, falling from 14th to 15th after generating $378 million, while the U.S. remains the world’s leading music market, generating billions of dollars in revenue.

India shares a similar story arc to Nigeria and I think I’ve written about India well enough. You can catch up on those here and here.

Back to the original convo, is it a surprise to you that South Africa generates that much than Nigeria??