ZAMBIAN ARTISTS CAN BARELY MAKE A 100 USD FROM YOUTUBE SAYS DJ MZENGA MAN
Top Zambian DJ – DJ Mzenga Man said its difficult to make a 100 USD from YouTube, but how really true is that?
When it comes to revenue generation, there’s a notion that most of the revenue that Zambian artists make is from events and brand collaborations – most online research say that an artist can earn anywhere from a 1000 USD to 5000 USD (28000 Zambian Kwacha to 139,000 Zambian Kwacha) per million streams on digital streaming platforms such as YouTube and Spotify with reasons for the difference in revenue generation being the creatives’ niche, audience demographics, ad type and monetization strategies.
Top Zambian DJ Mzenga Man was noted on a post by Kiss Jay making a comment to prevent misinformation of how much artists make on digital streaming platforms, the renowned producer said that young and upcoming artists shouldn’t be mislead because the issue of an artist making 3,000 USD (83,986 Zambian Kwacha) on Spotify was not true especially in a country like Zambia.
The producer said in part, “the issue of spotify making $3000 per 1million stream is not true especially here in Zambia. Its important that we dont confuse young and upcoming artists with false beliefs because such leads to frustrations and more confusion. Spotify $3000 per 1M streams is ONLY paid in countries that have consumers who are PAID UP SUBSCRIBERS on spotify.”
He further added that an artist in Zambia could barely make 100 USD on YouTube as it wasn’t easy and attributed the reasons to being in a region where most users of the platform where people use free version of the platform and said that he had evidence to prove it in plain sight.
On 29th November, 2023 owner of Kazadi Music label made a post on his Facebook where he said that knowledge was power and Zambia could be monetised, David Kazadi had attached a screenshot of his Google Adsense account that showed a gain of 3,000 GBP (104,569 Zambia Kwacha at today’s rate), showing how much he had made from his YouTube channel Kazadi Films. For context this was five months after his former artist Mordecaii had been released his breakthrough single FIRE.
MDA KaliBoy an up and coming Zambian rapper took to his Facebook on 4th August, 2024 to share a screenshot of his earnings on Distrokid which is a music distribution company which artists use to submit music to various digital streaming platforms, the rapper had earned over 1,000 USD (28,000 Zambia Kwacha in today’s exchange rate) in a post he advised his fellow up and coming artists to keep working because it was possible even though the artist didn’t reveal how long it took the artist to make those earnings. The rapper had over 500,000 spotify streams in 2024 and has accumulated over 1.5 million views on his YouTube channel.
So how true is it that Zambian artists can barely make a 100 USD on platforms such as YouTube? Many are perplexed whether to take the word of a Zambian music veteran producer or believe the artists and label owners who actually shared their earnings. Can up and coming artists in Zambia really benefit from digital streaming platforms to make a living?
Even though there are other videos on Kazadi Films YouTube channel, Mordecaii’s FIRE was and is the most performing content on the channel. What is clear at the moment is that truly Zambian creatives can make a living from money earned from digital streaming platforms.