Apple Music doesn’t share numbers publicly that often, so when it does, they’re generally significant. So check this: according to Apple, streams of African tracks on Apple Music have grown at a rate four times that of overall streams on the service.
We think that’s year-on-year growth (we’re checking) as it was presented alongside the claim that Shazams of African songs have grown twice as fast year-on-year as general Shazams – with France, the UK and US key to the latter spike.
The topical hook for Apple Music’s announcement was the success of Burna Boy’s new album ‘I Told Them…’.
Since its release on 25 August, it has broken Apple Music’s record for the most first-week streams globally by an African album; topped Apple Music’s albums chart in 69 countries; and saw 10 of its tracks break into the streaming service’s daily top 100 chart globally.
Burna Boy and Apple Music have plenty of history, since he was chosen as an ‘Up Next’ artist in 2019 as part of the service’s emerging-artists program. In July this year, Apple Music streamed a recording of his recent London Stadium concert too.
It’s one of several services shouting about African artists’ success: see also Spotify revealing 13.5bn Afrobeats streams on its service in 2022, and Audiomack celebrating Burna Boy reaching 1bn streams on its platform.
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