Spotify Announces A Creator Equity Fund For Upcoming Artists 

Spotify, the world’s largest music streaming service, has created a dedicated fund to promote emerging musicians.

By Omotayo Olutekunbi

New musicians have continued to struggle to reach a broad audience, especially as the music industry grows in size and requires more resources to reach a wider audience. In light of these difficulties, Spotify has decided to establish a fund to assist budding Ghanaian musicians.

The Creator Equity Fund is a collaboration between Spotify and Vibrate Space in Accra, a community recording studio and music business initiative that provides education, mentorship, and space to young Ghanaian musicians so they can create, connect, and cooperate.

Spotify originally collaborated with Vibrate in September 2022 with a gift that supported the studio’s start. Vibrate has logged over 200 studio reservations in the last six months and has welcomed many more creators for events and seminars.

Spotify is giving a significant gift from its Creator Equity Fund to help Vibrate realize its ambitious objectives to build and support Ghana’s creative economy over a number of years.

The fund, according to Phiona Okumu, Director of Music for Sub-Saharan

Africa (SSA), is a chance to assist artists in ways that speak specifically to each of our markets.

Spotify’s Global Head of Artist and Audience Partnerships Joe Hadley revealed the most recent gift on March 28 during an event at Surf Ghana. The grant will be distributed over several years, allowing the organization to partner with and help even more aspiring young artists looking to launch their careers.

Vibrate’s plans for using the additional funding for artist support include hosting a festival at the space at the end of the year, assisting artists in organizing their own events, and establishing a youth hostel where young people can find affordable, short-term housing while also experiencing the collaborative and community aspects of Vibrate.

The organization also plans to launch an artist in residency and exchange program to foster innovation, cooperation, and cultural exchange, as well as a women’s program to help women advance in the business. They also want to broaden their educational offerings by extending their extremely popular monthly masterclasses for another two years and creating a three-month instrument instruction program that will begin with piano lessons and progress to other instruments.