Joshua Baraka on stage. PHOTO/COURTESY
In a post on X (formerly Twitter), artiste Joshua Baraka, in a post, celebrated a milestone. The artiste announced that his song Wrong Places had amassed more than five million streams in three weeks since its release on May 16. For context, Wrong Places was released on Digital Service Providers (DSPs) or stores streaming or selling downloads of videos and songs. Globally, these include Spotify, Apple Music, Deezer, Amazon Music, and YouTube. Many countries and regions have their own local providers. But that was not the only good news the Dalilah hitmaker shared. He also revealed that his Spotify account had crossed 700,000 monthly listeners, the first by a Ugandan artiste, excluding those in the diaspora.
Joshua Baraka has not always had the biggest number of listeners. Eddy Kenzo, Azawi, Bebe Cool and Jose Chameleone have had better numbers than Baraka at the beginning of 2023. But the release of Nana, the song that launched the artiste to mainstream music and its remix alongside Kanyan vocalist and former Sauti Sol frontman Bien, Nigerian singer, Joeboy and Ghanaian highflying artiste King Promise, which launched him to the rest of Africa, saw him gain streaming numbers across platforms. With the release of his EP, Growing Pains, his numbers grew, thanks to collaborations with Nigerian artiste Magixx, Yaw Tog from Ghana.
From his collaborations, all the artistes had been doing better numbers on streaming platforms than him, he benefitted from their numbers and got introduced to their audiences. By the end of 2023, Joshua Baraka was the most exported Ugandan artiste on Spotify and his monthly listeners had grown. With his two EPs, Baby Steps and Watershed, released in 2021 and 2022, he had only managed a mere 17,000 streams with less than 10,000 monthly listeners. In fact, after releasing Baby Steps, with songs such as Tewekweka and Tomorrow, he had only 120 monthly listeners. Strategic collaborations and timely releases, took Baraka from numbers below 10,000 monthly listeners to more than 200,000 monthly listeners by the end of 2023.
But Joshua Baraka’s big jump on Spotify has regenerated Ugandans interest in the streaming conversation, and this comes at a time when Bebe Cool, a renowned artiste has just dropped an album, Break the Chains. Like Joshua Baraka, Bebe Cool is trying to tap into the streaming audience which has eluded Ugandans for years. To do this, Bebe Cool was careful while collaborating and has been intentional with the album roll out. While talking to the press, Bebe Cool said he decided to change his sound because that is what people listening to music are listening to at the moment. Over the course of the past three weeks since the album release, Bebe has used TikTok, Twitter and Instagram to promote his new album. Since Bebe Cool’s album was released, it has been streamed more than 600,000 times and his monthly listeners have grown from 40,000 to 140,000 in under a month.
As Bebe embarks on this journey, many Ugandans are receiving the move with a lot of confusion. Some industry stakeholders believe frequent live performances is the only way artistes can make real money from their music, a reason they still consider streaming as something farfetched. It goes without saying that Uganda’s internet penetration is still low and most people have argued that this hinders the would-be streamers. Most artistes have, however, countered this by collaborating with artistes from countries where the streaming culture has grown. For instance, both Azawi and Elijah Kitaka have local hits such as Masavu, Majje, Dawa and Ekyange among others, but their most streamed song is Elevated, where they appear alongside Bensol and Mike Kaihura. Baraka has mastered this so well that six of his most streamed songs have been collaborations with artistes from Ghana, Kenya, UK and Nigeria.
James Kaliisa, also known as James Propa, a gospel ALP at Spotify Africa, says there are opportunities but most Ugandan artistes are not willing to adapt. “There was a time we organised a masterclass in Kampala and invited artistes and they did not show up. When we organise such classes in Nigeria, we receive more artistes than we usually plan for,” he says. Kaliisa believes the world is ready for Ugandan music if it is made available, but argues that most local artistes are comfortable fighting for the small audience in Kampala. Appearing on one of the entertainment channels, he talked about John Blaq’s song Commando that started picking up steam on the streaming platforms in Nigeria after going viral on TikTok. “At the moment, there are fewer people watching traditional TV. If budget allows, make a music video.
But if you don’t have a budget, micro media such as Tik Tok videos, especially challenges can promote the song to the right audiences,” he says. Many advocates for streaming severally talk about music videos being wasteful ventures. Instead they advocate for visualisers, which some people shoot with phones, over high end full blown videos. But nothing explains the relevance or irrelevance of music videos the way Joshua Baraka’s Wrong Places does. Released a month ago, the song has earned two million views on YouTube with a lyric video. Jeff Ekongot, an arts enthusiast and analyst says local artistes can gain from streaming because there is an audience for their music, but the audience needs a mindset change.
Appearing on Morning at NTV, he said many songs are released on platforms across the globe and there's a ready audience willing to explore with music. “Artistes need to create awareness to drive their audience to stream their music. I feel like Joshua Baraka has done a great job, so far and it is good Bebe Cool is also taking that direction,” he says.
