The initiative, launched on the 19th of April, 2023, is a series that brings together African music’s cultural leaders and rising stars to highlight three distinct sub-genres and showcase the full breadth of music coming out of the continent.
By Hope Ibiale
Spotify, an online streaming platform, has announced the launch of Beat School, a global video series to celebrate the sounds of African music. The initiative, launched on the 19th of April, 2023, is a series that brings together African music’s cultural leaders and rising stars to highlight three distinct sub-genres and showcase the full breadth of music coming out of the continent.
In a press release, Spotify’s Head of Music for Sub Sharan African, Phiona Okumu, noted, “In recent years, African music has been on the rise as artists across the continent have broken into mainstream genres with all-star collaborations and genre-bending fusions. To highlight this, the series brings together African music’s cultural leaders and rising stars to highlight three distinct sub-genres and showcase the full breadth of music coming out of the content, including Amapiano.”
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In its first-ever episode, Amapiano artistes, Pabi Cooper and Mellow & Sleazy, sat down to discuss the rise of Amapiano, talking through their influences and more on artistes to watch out for. According to research by Spotify, Amapiano, which has roots in the townships of South Africa’s capital, Pretoria, has taken the world by storm. Spotify data shows that 43% of all Amapiano is being listened to outside of South Africa in markets like Nigeria, Kenya, Tanzania, Mozambique, and Ghana, all ranking in the genre’s top 20 export markets.
More episodes from Beat School highlighting other sub-genres will be available in the coming weeks, with some of Africa’s hottest artistes and producers taking music lovers on a journey through African music and culture.
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Spotify is an audio streaming and media services provider founded on 23 April 2006 by Daniel Ek and Martin Lorentzon. It is one of the largest music streaming service providers, with over 489 million monthly active users, including 205 million paying subscribers, as of December 2022. The streaming service offers digital copyright-restricted recorded audio content from record labels and media companies, including over 100 million songs and five million podcasts. It also provides other features like playlists, offline listening, commercial-free listening, and many others.