Over the course of the last decade, as new ways of listening to music emerge, new consumer behavior starts to form, habits become modified/reshaped and this, in turn, impacts the way music industries operate.
Painstaking data collection, careful analysis of these collated data, diligently pursued and reasonable deductions reached. This has to be undertaken in order to facilitate better decision making by stakeholders with regards to music consumption patterns, music viability, and artiste reach and platform visibility. It helps music marketing experts and publicity agents target large clusters of 'music ready' audiences, invariably bringing artistes and fans closer together.
Here, we seek to understand; the market share and audience reach music platforms command, their effects on consumption habits /music preferences, and through well-reasoned and careful deduction of available data; the demographic makeup of these platforms audience.
Preferred Platforms:
Streaming plays an outsized role in modern times in music consumption, hence, the heavy representation of streaming platforms on here. This is simply a testament to its unwavering appeal and popularity among music consumers.
The more preferred platforms include:
* Apple music
* Boomplay
* Audiomack
* Youtube
Others:
* Deezer
* YouTube Music
* Tidal
* Gbedu
* Mino
* UduX
Apple Music
The platform is notorious among Twitter users, hence, its demographics skew slightly younger than the other platforms. The top songs in 2020; “Bad Influence,” “Vibration,” and “Again” – songs that are popular among dominant age groups on the social media platform. The likes of “The Box,” “Dior,” “Toosie Slide” and “Rockstar” are in the Top 50 of Apple Music NG top songs of 2020 – these are some of the most popular songs on the Billboard Year-End Hot 100, pointing at an influence of America/foreign music culture on the platform's demographics. It is not as penetrative as other platforms as it has a smaller user base (less than 150,000). However, they represent the biggest paying music consumer subset in the country.
Boomplay
This appears to be the preferred platform for the vast majority of local Nigerian music audience, Gospel genre is one of the biggest on the platform. Tope Alabi is No. 7 on the all-time list of biggest artiste on Boomplay; Mercy Chinwo is No.12; Nathaniel Bassey is No.20, and Sinach is No. 21. Frank Edwards and Sola Allyson Obaniyi are also in the top 30. This shows that the platform is the biggest draw for gospel music listeners in the country. The platform does not appear to be a favorable option for emerging artistes.
Legends like; K1 D Ultimate, Fela Kuti, King Sunny Ade (KSA), Chief (Dr) Sikiru Ayinde Barrister, Chief Ebenezer Obey are also in the top 100 of all-time list, further lending credence to the deduction that the platform attracts a slightly older and 'mature' demographic than the rest.
Boomplay is readily available on Android phones manufactured by Tecno in Nigeria – this might then be responsible for the presence of more listeners of local/traditional genres in the country.
Audiomack
The platform appears to be the preferred destination of the ‘average Nigerian Listener'. It is a freemium platform that allows offline downloads. Its demographics offer the aptest and accurate representation of Nigerian Music listeners. Interestingly, Nigerian artistes tend to do a huge share of their streaming numbers on the platform. “Bad Influence,” “FEM,” “Damn,” “You,” and “Nobody” are the biggest songs on the platform.
It accounted for 30.88% of Made in Lagos first month streams (the biggest of all platforms), it accounted for 28.63% of Twice as Tall first-month streams (the biggest of all platforms), 44.7% of A Better Time first-month streams (the biggest of all platforms). It accounted for 57.5% of "Get Layd's" first 120million streams (the biggest share of all platforms).
YouTube
The most penetrative platform in Nigeria cuts across every demographic of music consumers in the country. From gospel music listeners, mainstream listeners, non-mainstream listeners like Indigenous language artistes, foreign music consumers, and more. It also appears to cut neatly across age groups as compared to other platforms.
A cursory glance at a typical Top 100 chart of YouTube NG top songs this year would see artistes like; Davido, Master KG, Mercy Chinwo, Magnito, Hamisu Breaker, Chike, Neeqah, Alicia Keys, Qdot, Omah Lay, Timi dakolo, Akon, Nicki Minaj, Korrexx, BTS, Rudeboy, Moses Bliss – it doesn’t get more diverse than this!
Other Platforms like Deezer, Tidal, YouTube Music, Gbedu, Mino & UduX- Do not offer enough data to make accurate deductions.
Conclusion
Analyzing music consumption through different demographics create a better understanding of consumer behavior and preference. This helps artistes and labels understand the market for better segmentation and distribution. Understanding music consumption and demographics is key for both artistes and music platforms to understand their stronghold and areas they are lagging behind. At any rate, it helps both artistes and consumers to arrive at some level of utility.
Streaming Platforms and their Demographics
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