Afrobeats: Global Rise, Local Realities, and the Future of African Music Economies
- Author(s):
- Olufunmilayo B. Arewa
- Posted:
- 07-2026
- Law & Economics #:
- 26-14
- Availability:
- Full text (most recent) on SSRN
ABSTRACT:
Afrobeats has become one of Africa’s most successful cultural exports, propelled by Nigerian creative talent, informal innovation networks, and diaspora audiences, at a moment when streaming and platform consolidation are reshaping the global music industry. Yet despite generating substantial global value, only a fraction of that value returns to Nigeria. This pattern echoes older extractive economic arrangements and exposes structural gaps in Nigeria’s creative economy governance. Drawing on the concept of technological and institutional “leapfrogging,” this report traces how Nigeria’s music industry developed largely outside the distribution models that shaped core Western markets, with local factors contributing to the development of an industry marked by informality, weak data infrastructure, and contested royalty-collection institutions. The report identifies five interlocking structural issues: extractive global industry structures, informality and weak local data, opaque royalty systems and contracting practices, undeveloped African touring markets, and limited local capital for business scaling. It argues these constraints apply beyond Afrobeats to other fast-growing genres in the broader cultural and creative economy that are increasingly recognized as economically significant. The report closes with policy recommendations spanning regional regulatory frameworks, local financial ecosystems, touring infrastructure, data strategy, and African-centered intellectual property and contracting models, aimed at helping Nigeria and other African countries convert cultural influence into durable economic value.