Africa’s Sound Is Global — But Where’s the Money?

Before the global burst of Afrobeats and Amapiano – the former during 2016-2019, and the latter’s in 2020 during the COVID19 pandemic – African music had reached non-African ears largely as isolated genres or within specialty “world music” circuits.

Congolese Lingala beats dominated Francophone Africa in the past decades and found itself to dance floors across the continent. Fela Kuti, Miriam Makeba, Ayub Ogada, Youssou N’Dour, Hugh Masekela, Brenda Fassie, and Oliver Mtukudzi all made a name internationally. But they tasted their success largely in the jazz and “world music” markets, never really fully saturating global pop.

That has changed. The continent’s current global momentum has been building for over a decade. Afrobeats’ breakout led by the likes of Wizkid, Davido, and Burna Boy set the stage, while South Africa’s Amapiano wave, propelled by Master KG’s Jerusalema during the pandemic, turned African dance music into a worldwide cultural force.

African music pulses in London and Los Angeles clubs today, including global festival circuits and viral TikTok challengs. The sound is unmistakably international. Yet the success of the sound masks industry wide revenue imbalances, structural shortfalls, and an industry that cannot cash in on global visibility to accrue enduring economic power.

The Paradox of Global Success

Around the world, Amapiano and Afrobeats still rule playlists and festivals.  However, Africa’s creative economy only reaches a small portion of its potential despite their widespread use.

 Despite producing some of the world’s most popular and rapidly expanding genres, Sub-Saharan Africa accounts for less than 1% of recorded music revenues worldwide, according to data from the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI).

The causes are numerous and include low investment, poor infrastructure development, poor copyright enforcement, and insufficient professional management. Due to these structural flaws, even though African music contributes to global expansion, the majority of the profits go to platforms, distributors, and labels with headquarters outside of the continent.

Where the Money Is (and Isn’t)

The IFPI’s Global Music Report 2025 shows that recorded-music revenues reached US$29.6 billion in 2024, up 4.8 percent year-on-year—even as mature markets cooled.

Africa’s sub-regions were among the fastest-growing:

Sub-Saharan Africa grew 22.6 percent to US$110 million in recorded-music trade revenues—the first time the region crossed the hundred-million mark—with South Africa contributing roughly 75 percent after 14.4 percent growth.

The Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region expanded 22.8 percent to more than US$144 million, making it the world’s fastest-growing music market.

Streaming is driving that surge. In 2024, Spotify reported royalty payments of roughly US$59 million to Nigerian and South African artists combined—₦58 billion to Nigerians and R400 million to South Africans, according to Reuters. Analysts project that Africa’s streaming revenues could top US$315 million by 2026, if local ecosystems can capture the value rather than export it.

Yet that “if” is key. For all the headlines about streaming milestones, much of Africa’s music infrastructure—licensing, publishing, digital distribution, collective management—remains underdeveloped or externally owned. The result: African creativity, foreign profits.

West Africa: The Engine Room of Afrobeats

Nowhere is this tension more visible than in West Africa, where Nigeria and Ghana have become the engine rooms of Afrobeats’ global rise.

Nigerian-Ghanaian artist and entrepreneur Mr Eazi has been one of the most outspoken about the problem. In one interview with Music Business Worldwide, he lamented that “there is not one company that is 100 percent focused on just distributing African music, just servicing African music, working with African artists.”

Wizkid performing at the Iyanya vs. Desire album launch concert in 2013. Photo: Wiki CC BY-SA 3.0

Through his company, emPawa Africa, he has tried to fill that gap by investing in artist development and African-led infrastructure. Speaking to Trapital, he argued that “there’s no one right path for all artists… that optionality is especially important for artists (and founders) in Africa.”

In another conversation with TechCrunch, Mr Eazi put it more bluntly:

“The reason I’m investing in music tech is to make sure we have African equity in the structures that are integral to the ecosystem, because that’s where the real power and value lie.”

The message is clear: if African artists are to fully reap the benefits of their global attention, they don’t just need to produce more music, they also need to control its dissemination, data, and monetization.

From Lagos’s beat to Dakar’s poetry, West Africa illustrates how commerce and art can go hand in hand, but even its success stories reveal how fragile the ecosystem is.

East of Africa, countries like Kenya, Tanzania, and Uganda are struggling with the same problems of access, rights, and representation. 

In Nairobi, music industry executive Faiza Hersi told OkayAfrica that while “Kenyan artists are among the most talented in the world,” the problem “isn’t talent; it’s access.” Many, she said, “don’t know how to collect royalties, monetise, or secure publishing… they have no idea where to begin.”

Eric Musyoka, Chair of the Recording Industry of Kenya (RIKE), echoed the concern in an interview with Music In Africa, identifying “two big challenges, collective management organisations (CMOs) and investor confidence.” Most investors, he noted, are reluctant to support artist development “due to fear that returns are not guaranteed.” Without proper systems, even investors willing to back creativity can’t see where their money will go—or how it will come back.

Across the continent’s northern flank, the MENA region offers another paradox. According to IFPI data reported by Beatportal, the region’s recorded-music revenues rose 22.8 percent in 2024, powered almost entirely by streaming.

Yet as The Africa Report observed, Egypt’s musicians are “increasingly looking to the Gulf states for more lucrative contracts,” as domestic revenues struggle to match rising costs. The lesson is stark: growth alone doesn’t guarantee local value capture.

If African markets continue to expand without building the structures that ensure revenue retention – strong CMOs, transparent digital rights management, local label ownership – then  much of the profit will keep leaking offshore.

Addressing these disparities has become a policy priority at continental level. The Connect for Culture Africa (CfCA) initiative, implemented through Selam in partnership with the African Union (AU), builds on the AU’s 1% for Culture commitment under Agenda 2063, which urges member states to dedicate at least one percent of their national budgets to arts, culture, and heritage. By tying cultural investment to economic planning, the CfCA reframes music not merely as entertainment, but as a driver of employment, equity, and sustainable growth.

The Structural Challenge Ahead

Across all these regions, one theme resonates: Africa’s music boom is outpacing its business systems.

As streaming and social media open doors to global visibility, they also expose structural weaknesses at home. Who manages the rights? Who collects the royalties? Who ensures metadata accuracy? These seemingly technical details determine whether a global hit translates into sustainable income or just viral fame.

Fela Kuti was a pan-Africanist, but it’s only now that older Africans celebrate him for being one. It wasn’t Nigeria (or any African nation) that dedicated a play in his honour, either. (Photograph: David Corio/Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images)

Veteran Senegalese artist Youssou N’Dour once said that African music “is never for music’s sake, it always carries a message and connects people.” Today, that message extends beyond culture to commerce: if the continent wants to own its sound, it must own its systems.

African music “is never for music’s sake, it always carries a message and connects people.” Senegalese artist Youssou N’Dour

Lyrics, rhythm and a continent at crossroads

Africa’s sound is global, its rhythm unstoppable. But to turn this cultural momentum into generational wealth, the continent’s music sector must shift from celebration to consolidation—from hits to infrastructure, from exposure to ownership.

The next decade will determine whether Africa’s artists remain suppliers of global culture or become full participants in a thriving continental creative economy.

The music already moves the world. The question now is: can it finally pay the people who make it?

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