Spotify’s Pay Gap Leaves Nigerian Artists With Billions In Streams, Peanuts In Pockets
Nigerian musicians generated more than 30 billion streams on Spotify in 2025. Their earnings from those streams crossed NGN 60 B (approximately USD 44 M) for the first time. The numbers, released in Spotify’s annual Loud & Clear report, paint a picture of an industry on a rocket-powered trajectory.
But beneath the headline figures lies a math problem that troubles industry insiders.
One million streams on Spotify in Nigeria pays an artist approximately USD 300, one prominent industry figure revealed last year. The same million streams in Sweden pays up to USD 10 K, revealing a gap of more than 3,000 percent.
Spotify does not pay a flat rate per stream. The company operates a territorial model where subscription fees determine royalty pools. In Nigeria, a monthly premium subscription costs NGN 1.3 K, roughly USD 0.82. In Sweden, where Spotify is headquartered, the same subscription costs USD 13.8. In the U.S., it costs USD 12.99.
Revenue pools in each country are divided among artists streamed there. A listener in Lagos contributes to a smaller pool than a listener in Stockholm. When a Nigerian artist is streamed in Lagos, the payout reflects Nigerian subscription economics. When the same artist is streamed in Stockholm, the payout reflects Swedish economics.
Muyiwa Awoniyi, manager of Grammy-winning singer Tems, laid bare the arithmetic in an interview last year. “If my IP is anchored to a region where one million streams is USD 300.00, I am cooked,” he said.
Spotify’s 2025 Loud & Clear report shows Nigerian artist revenue grew more than 140 percent over two years. Independent artists and labels claimed 58 percent of all royalties generated by Nigerian musicians on the platform . Local consumption of Nigerian music jumped 170 percent year-on-year.
These are genuine gains. But they are gains within a system where the ceiling is lower than floors elsewhere.
Media expert Akíntúndé Babátúndé has previously framed the challenge bluntly: even an artist with 10 million fans in Nigeria could earn less than someone with 1 million fans in a high-income country. This is not about musical quality, he stressed. It is about the economic reality of audiences whose limited financial power restricts their ability to support artists through subscriptions, data purchases, or live events.
Some artists are finding a workaround. Nigerian migration patterns mean significant diaspora populations in Sweden, the Netherlands, the United States, and Britain. When Nigerians abroad stream homegrown music, those streams register in higher-paying territories.
This creates an odd dynamic. An artist’s success in wealthy markets often depends less on winning over local listeners than on Nigerians living there. The streams happen in Stockholm, but the audience remains Nigerian.
Spotify’s report noted that Nigerian artists were featured in nearly 320 million user playlists globally. The platform does not break down where those playlists originate. But the diaspora effect is visible in the data.
Spotify paid the music industry more than USD 11 B in 2025, with lifetime payouts reaching USD 70 B. More than 13,800 artists generated at least USD 100 K from the platform alone. Nigerian artists are increasingly part of that middle tier.
The question is whether they can climb higher without leaving home.
Babátúndé argues that artists have a stake in Nigeria’s broader economic health. “The growth of the creative industry depends on people being able to afford subscriptions, buy data, attend shows, and support their favourite artists without breaking the bank,” he said. His warning to musicians: if your fans stay broke, so do you.
