Spotify dropped its annual Loud & Clear report this week, and for South Africa, the numbers remain genuinely staggering. Local artists generated just over R504 million in royalties on the platform in 2025 – a 28% year-on-year jump that nearly doubles what they earned back in 2023, and outpaces the broader South African recorded music market’s 18% streaming growth.
But, buried inside that headline figure is a genre story that nobody was expecting: the five fastest-growing genres in South Africa over the last five years on Spotify are cloud rap, pop country, acoustic country, pop rap, and worship.
If you’re surprised, you’re not alone. Cloud rap? Country? In South Africa?
SA’s biggest genres vs its fastest-growing ones
A large number of the population believes they know what South Africa actually listens to at scale. Amapiano is unambiguously the country’s dominant genre – Kabza De Small, Kelvin Momo and DJ Maphorisa were among the most-streamed artists in the country in 2025, and Amapiano tracks dominated the Daily Top 50 all year.
South African artists accounted for 67% of the songs that appeared on Spotify SA’s Daily Top 50 in 2025, and the overwhelming majority of those were Amapiano or Amapiano-adjacent. Afro house, Afrobeats, gospel, and hip-hop round out the picture of what South Africans are actually streaming in volume.
Even though cloud rap, pop country, acoustic country, pop rap and worship are the country’s fastest-growing genres over five years, Amapiano isn’t going anywhere. The focus here is more about what’s emerging. About the genres that are building an audience and are now growing faster than anything else, from a lower base right under our noses.
Unpacking the growth genres
“What is cloud rap?” you might wonder. It is described as hazy, lo-fi production, introspective lyrics, washed-out aesthetics and this offshoot of rap has been building a global following for years, largely off the back of SoundCloud and algorithmic discovery.
Its growth in South Africa tracks with a broader global trend. South African artists in this space are increasingly finding international audiences through exactly the kind of cross-border streaming that the Loud & Clear data spotlights.
Pop country and acoustic country are arguably the biggest curveballs. Country music has historically had a negligible foothold in South Africa. But globally, country has experienced a cultural reset, partly driven by the crossover success of artists like Morgan Wallen, Zach Bryan and Beyoncé’s Cowboy Carter, and that tide is clearly lapping at South African shores too.
The growth of these genres here likely reflects both international listening and, more intriguingly, the emergence of local artists experimenting with country-influenced sounds.
Melodic, hook-driven, streaming-friendly hip-hop has also given rise to yet another offshoot of rap that fits neatly into the kind of music that algorithm-driven platforms like Spotify are built to amplify.
Worship music’s appearance on this list is perhaps the least surprising if you know anything about South Africa’s deeply religious demographics. Gospel has always been a significant cultural force here. Nontokozo Mkhize’s gospel album Lindiwe was one of the ten most-streamed albums in SA in 2025. The growth of worship specifically (the more contemporary, global expression of Christian music) suggests South African listeners are engaging with the genre through its international as well as local expressions.
Global machine, local numbers
What makes the Loud & Clear data so significant isn’t just the R504 million figure, but also where that money came from.
Nearly 74% of royalties generated by South African artists on Spotify in 2025 came from listeners outside South Africa. The world is the primary market for South African music, not South Africans themselves.
This aligns with a global finding in the Loud & Clear report: on average, artists now generate more than half their Spotify royalties from outside their home countries within just two years of debuting.
South Africa’s version of that story is supercharged, likely because of how Amapiano has spread, and how artists like Tyla, Uncle Waffles and Black Coffee have cracked global mainstream markets.
In addition, South African artists were discovered by first-time listeners more than 1.6 billion times in 2025 – a 40% increase from 2024. Nearly 3 550 South African artists were placed on Spotify editorial playlists during the year, indicating that the discovery engine is firing.
Independent artists are winning
More than half of all royalties generated by South African artists on Spotify in 2025 went to independent artists or labels, a finding that the streaming giant says echoes the global Loud & Clear picture, where independents also accounted for roughly half of all $11 billion-plus in worldwide Spotify payouts.
The global report also found that over a third of artists generating $10 000 or more in annual Spotify royalties are DIY artists who self-release through independent distributors.
For South African artists, this is significant. It means you don’t need a major label deal to participate in the R504 million economy.
The Zulu Effect
One of the most striking data points in the South Africa-specific release is the explosive growth of music performed in Zulu. Zulu-language music saw a 37% increase in global royalties year-on-year, and more than 120% growth over two years. The Loud & Clear global report also noted that songs in 16 different languages reached Spotify’s Global Top 50 in 2025, more than double the number in 2020.
This is the kind of finding that matters for the industry’s long-term health: language is no longer a ceiling. Listeners globally are choosing music based on what moves them, not where it was made or what language it’s in.
Female artists on the rise
Local streams of South African female artists grew 22% year-on-year in 2025, while their international streams grew 20%. These are solid, consistent growth numbers that suggest female South African artists are building durable global audiences, not just catching one-off viral moments.
@hernametyla @Zara Larsson
Tyla remains the standout export. In 2025 she placed seven tracks in the top 10 most-exported South African songs and has been streamed in over 187 countries, but the growth in female artist streams broadly suggests a deeper bench of talent building momentum.
Reflecting on these findings, Spotify’s managing director for Sub-Saharan Africa, Jocelyne Muhutu-Remy, called South African artists “a globally dominant creative force” – and based on this evidence, it’s hard to argue otherwise.
The full Loud & Clear report is available at loudandclear.byspotify.com
