The Impact of Music Distribution on Afrobeats

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Afro Beats

By Ikechukwu Uche

One of the forms of art that has been essential and basic to humans is music. Music is a general phenomenon, a daily element that serves a beautiful purpose in society as a whole.

Music is as old as humanity itself and has also experienced development as human society develops. The development is mostly obvious in the pattern of music distribution, and through several decades, different methods have been employed to help, especially Afrobeats artists or musicians, publish their music to the public, which has influenced the growth dynamics of the genre.

Dated back to the 1980s to 1990s, the major form of music distribution prevalent in the Afrobeats music industry, and every other genre, was through the sale of cassettes. Cassette sales or distribution came in the form of physical distribution, in which they were sold to audiences physically through music marketers and distributors. It also entailed quality degradation with each copy and limited playback durability. Also, within the years of 1980s to 2000s, Afrobeats music was distributed through the use of CDs (Compact Discs). CDs were characterized by digital quality, high production costs, and widespread adoption.

During these eras, Afrobeats music also experienced distribution growth through several radio airplays, which mostly came with free promotion, limited control over playback, and most airplays were dependent on DJs’ or programmers’ discretion. In the early 2000s, just like Afrobeats, other music genres were embracing the newly introduced digital distribution, which differed from the physical distribution and radio airplay adopted in previous years.

Napster was one of the most prevalent digital distributions unveiled into the music purview, from 1999 to 2001. It pioneered peer-to-peer file sharing and was characterized by illicit music sharing and later shut down due to copyright infringement. This didn’t affect Afrobeats artists then because the adoption of the newly introduced digital distribution was not prevalent among the genre.

Around 2003, when the iTunes store was introduced to the music scene, many Afrobeats artists quickly adopted this platform more than the former (Napster). Afrobeats music, during the invention of iTunes, was distributed more widely than any other digital distribution adopted at that time. iTunes was a digital marketplace famous from 2003 to 2010 and made a huge impact on popularizing Afrobeats worldwide, with artists like Wizkid, Davido, Dbanj, and several other Afrobeats artists adopting the digital tool during that period.

In Nigeria today, another platform prominent in the Afrobeats purview, distributing the genre digitally to a wider audience, is M.A.D Solutions. M.A.D Solutions has undoubtedly contributed to Afrobeats music and artists’ growth by promoting them globally. M.A.D Solutions, an initialism of Measurable Accurate Digital Solutions, is a new-age music distribution company founded by Bugwu Aneto-Okeke.

Since its launch in 2017, the pioneering digital music company has served as an alternative to traditional music label deals. M.A.D Solutions’ major service is digital music distribution, but recently, the company has transcended its original conception, now offering various services, including digital marketing, label services, public relations, and music publishing.

The distribution company operates in Nigeria, South Africa, Canada, and the United States, using over 45 digital service providers, such as Apple Music, Spotify, VEVO, Amazon, YouTube, Ayoba, Audiomack, and several other prominent digital service providers worldwide. This digital service provided by the company has significantly impacted Afrobeats music development and placed its artists on the global scene more than ever.

Another music distribution company that has promoted Afrobeats music and its artistes is Dvpper. Dvpper have been associated with several Afrobeats artistes such as Seyi Vibez, Baloraking, Shallipopi, T.I Blaze, and a host of others. Dvpper Distribution, Records. (marketed as DVPPER) is a Nigerian distribution company and record label founded in 2017 by Damilola Akinwunmi and headquartered in Lagos, Nigeria. It has released albums in various genres but it is predominantly focused on Afrobeats music.

Also, notable among prominents music distributor in the Afrobeats scene is Distrokid. DistroKid basically offers musicians and other rights-holders the opportunity to distribute and sell or stream their music through online retailers such as Spotify, Pandora, iTunes/Apple Music, Amazon Music, YouTube Music, TikTok, Instagram, Facebook, Snapchat, Tidal, Deezer, iHeartRadio, and more.

The Distrokid Distribution company was formerly titled Fandalism, is an American independent digital music distribution service, founded in 2012 by American entrepreneur Philip J. Kaplan. Distrokid have been used by several Afrobeats artistes to push and distribute their music worldwide. It is a distribution company open to every artistes whether underground or famous ones. Their distribution plans are outlined on their website and this enables different artistes to choose any plan of their choice that best suits their pocket.

We cannot doubt the fact that Afrobeats have metamorphosed over the years with series of growth and development. These growth and development are traced to only not the artistes but the mode of music distribution they employed from the early 80s till date. Changes have occurred and distribution has gone digital than the previous traditional way of distributing and publishing music to the public.

Afrobeats like every other genre is not classified by the CD or Cassette sales any longer but by the number of downloads and streams derived online. This enabled artistes and their audiences to have access to their music without going to a marketer physically to get it.

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