Maya Amolo named Spotify’s inaugural Fresh Finds Africa artist

Spotify on Wednesday announced Kenyan singer Maya Amolo as its very first-ever Fresh new Finds Africa artist as section of its programme.

The initiative by the music streaming organization is tailor-made particularly to highlight and create emerging independent artists from across the continent.

Centred around the New Finds playlist, the programme focuses on aiding rising artists to discover and develop by offering them the equipment for prolonged-time period and sustained vocation achievement.

The Refreshing Finds playlist serves as a launchpad for up-and-coming artists to get exposure though also catering to supporters and sector tastemakers who want to learn contemporary new talent.

20-a few-year-aged Maya Amolo is an alternative R&B artist from Nairobi. She slice her enamel on SoundCloud, collaborating with web producers to make unhappy boi tunes like “U Wanna” and “Where Tornados Flew”. Maya’s sugary vocals and tender harmonies immediately amassed her a focused listenership and grabbed the awareness of local producers and musicians.

Maya headlines the inaugural Clean Finds Africa playlist housed in Spotify’s Clean Finds hub to showcase tracks from other up-and-coming African artists. In addition to currently being playlisted with the rest, she receives a just one-on-one particular workshop on the ideal methods for employing the Spotify system as properly as in-application and social guidance to assistance her develop her occupation.

“Fresh Finds’ artist variety is educated by a mix of information and editorial decision making, with our curation group choosing artists that are showing momentum both on and off Spotify,” claims Phiona Okumu, Spotify’s head of audio for Sub-Saharan Africa.

“Spotify has always been dedicated to connecting lovers to up-and-coming artists and the audio they really like. The Refreshing Finds programme is an enhanced edition of that,” provides Okumu.

Given that its international launch in 2016, Refreshing Finds has playlisted more than 25,000 artists, with their average month to month listeners increasing by 108% within a month of their music getting provided in the playlists.

“For an impending artist like Maya, these figures promise an increased viewers and opens her up to new options which may well not have been doable devoid of Fresh Finds,” concludes Okumu.

Maya’s initial physique of operate, Go away Me At The Pregame, which requires the listener by means of a melodious journey of self-acceptance and healing, was released in mid-2020. Maya has considering that absent on to set up herself as one particular to observe, owning been coated by NPR, The Native Mag, Alright Africa and TANGAZA Journal. She is established to release the 1st single from her forthcoming job on March 31.

“I am honoured to be preferred as the first artist to start Contemporary Finds in Africa. This is a considerably-needed platform for forthcoming artists and I am psyched for the progress that will appear as a outcome of this,” says Maya.

Clean Finds Africa will be a month-to-month programme, with a new artist chosen every single month by the Spotify tunes crew, and varieties part of Spotify’s continued motivation to assist the African tunes business, via initiatives this sort of as Equal and Radar.