ALT NRB playlist aims to promote Kenyan music on Spotify

Success on streaming platforms such as Spotify is high up on the list of things that impacts significantly on an artist's global sustainability or success, with a huge percentage of global industry revenue coming from the platform.

Independent East African artists have been able to DIY it on Spotify through fairly easy and affordable means for a while, but the uptake has been incredibly slow. This is probably because it's hard to get traction without a big marketing push, large following or global footprint. This means that the costs and efforts to get on Spotify come with a high-risk, low-benefit ratio for East African artists.

Two years ago, you'd be lucky to count the number of Kenyan artists on Spotify on one hand, and they were likely to be established artists with marketing teams placing their music on the platform. In addition, Spotify as a promotional tool is even trickier for East African artists because the platform is not available locally, although there are ways to get around that if you do some research online.

Nonetheless, the small number of high-end playlists featuring East African music and the fact that artists from the region haven’t made the jump onto the platform as they have in South Africa means that more work needs to be done to ensure representation, and success, from the region.

Spotify streaming is about volume – big volume – before labels and artists can make real money. It's also about influential playlists that govern the taste of the masses. The question then is how to get onto a playlist that gets millions of listens. It turns out to be a chicken-and-egg situation.

With a view that it's much easier to push a playlist than individual artists, and that high-volume playlist creators often look at niche playlists to find new music, the ALT NRB (Alternative Nairobi) playlist was born.

It's a start – a way of separating out the new music of Nairobi from its commercial counterparts. It's a first rung on the ladder for Nairobi artists who have opted to promote their music on Spotify. It's hoped that it will give the taste-makers, the bloggers, those who make an effort to find new music, a well-curated playlist. It's a way to begin connecting with what's happening on the #Nu scene.

This is a long-haul approach, with zero monetary gain, and high risk of failure. Nonetheless, the hope is that the popularity of the artists on the playlist will grow organically and that other destinations in East Africa will follow.  

Listen to the ALT NRB playlist here.

Jude Clark is the creator of the Spotify ALT NRB playlist and a Kenya-based behavioural scientist and digital strategist whose focus is primarily on the East African music industry.