Afrobeats, Amapiano gained nearly 4bn Vevo views in 2023
VEVO reports that the entire catalog of Afrobeats and Amapiano videos saw nearly 4 Billion global views on its platform in 2023. This comes as a result of numbers of videos by both genres increasing by 61 percent since 2022.
According to Music Business Worldwide(mbw), top artists like Rema, Kizz Daniel, and Davido are key drivers of this growth, with Rema’s Calm Down with Selena Gomez amassing 564 million views in 2023.
MBW said that Vevo mentioned cross-genre collaborations with Afrobeats and Amapiano artists as a key growth trend, citing songs such as Chris Brown’s Sensational featuring Davido and Lojay which gained over 38 million global views last year.
Jodeci Rampasard, Vevo’s Senior Manager, Music & Talent, UK, said to MBW that these collaborations are helping attract new audiences globally.
“We’ve seen more and more artists that are thinking beyond being cookiecutter, single-genre musicians and are instead choosing to expand both their fanbases and musical repertoire by exploring new musical styles and sometimes even languages that are new to them, Rampasard said.
“Artists working outside of their normal sound exposes them to countless new eyes and ears that may not have been exposed to their art beforehand, and allows the cross-pollination of global audiences.”
Elsewhere on the Vevo network, Rampasard says that “the most impactful track that comes to mind” for her is Tyla’s Water.
Tyla was named as a Vevo DSCVR artist in 2023, and according to Rampasard, at over 5.6 million views, her DSCVR performance of the track was the highest-viewed piece of content for Vevo’s DSCVR franchise last year. (The track’s official video on Youtube has been viewed over 157 million times).
Vevo has also filmed original content with artists like Libianca, Asake, Ayra Starr, and Davido.
Rampasard also told MBW that 21 percent of Vevo’s Afrobeats and Amapiano views came from Europe in 2023 while 24 percent came from the Americas. Rampasard cited this fest as unprecedented.
“In the last five years, we’ve seen a 223 percent growth in Afrobeats and Amapiano views in the US and a 113 percent increase in the UK. This rise can be supported by the success of events like Dankie Sounds and Girls Love Amapiano dominating the UK club scene, Rampasard said.
Commenting on her predictions for Afrobeats and Amapiano artists’ positioning in the global music industry and mainstream cultural sphere over the next couple of years, Rampasard says that both genres are “paving [their] own way and breaking new artists consistently”.
Sub-saharan Africa was the standout performer in IFPI reports for 2023, achieving the fastest growth rate of any region at 24.7 percent. This growth was fueled by a surge in paid streaming revenues, which climbed 24.5 percent. South Africa remained the largest market in the region, contributing 77.0 percent of regional revenues and experiencing growth of 19.9 percent.