I saw Burna Boy's Spotify numbers this morning and had to look twice.
He's now sitting at roughly 57.7 million monthly listeners, putting him ahead of Madonna on the platform.
That is an astonishingly impressive number!
There was a time when most Nigerian artists probably wouldn't have imagined something like this was even possible!
Burna Boy wasn't born with a global audience. He spent years releasing music, building his sound, performing, collaborating and finding listeners one by one.
Most people didn't notice every step.
That's usually how growth works.
We see the huge audience at the end and forget the small audience that came first.
Burna Boy's rise took me back to something I wrote after watching Peller and Jarvis celebrate their wedding. Their stories are completely different, but teach the same thing: An audience is not built overnight. As a creator, artist, influencer or musician in the social media space, you have to give people a reason to stick around, then keep showing up.
I wrote more about that in “Watching Peller and Jarvis Celebrate Made Me Think Differently About Building an Online Brand.” You can access it here
The Spotify milestone made me think about anyone building something online today.
A new blogger with 30 readers.
A creator with 200 followers.
A small business getting its first few enquiries.
Someone posting videos that barely anyone watches.
Those numbers can feel discouraging when you're staring at them every day.
But today's audience isn't the only thing that matters.
You're building the thing that could eventually attract the audience.
Burna Boy's current numbers are a useful reminder of that. His catalogue has had years to travel, and his recent collaboration with Shakira has helped push his Spotify audience even higher. He reached 47.4 million monthly listeners in July, setting an African record at the time.
The lesson I take from it is simple.
Don't mistake being small for being unsuccessful.
A blog with 50 readers can become a blog with 5,000.
A creator with 300 followers can build a community.
A business with a quiet Instagram page can eventually become the business people recommend to their friends.
But something has to happen first.
You have to keep creating.
That's where tools and support can make the process less overwhelming. Auxi Sherpa's AI Image & Content Creation/Music Creation tools can help creators and businesses produce consistent visual and written content without having to handle every part of the process alone.
The technology can help.
The audience takes time.
And there is no shortcut around building something people actually want to return to.
Burna Boy's Spotify number looks enormous today.
Somewhere, though, there was a much smaller number that mattered just as much.
One listener.
That's where every audience begins.
If you have an article, opinion piece or news story you'd like published on Global News Arena, or you're ready to begin building a profitable digital business from your phone, I'd love to hear from you.
