How Kenyan listeners are driving growth in the social music scene

The rise of social music in Kenya is largely driven by evolving listener behavior. As audiences connect, share, and interact with music digitally, they are reshaping consumption trends and contributing to the rapid expansion of the country’s social music landscape.

Spotify listeners streamed over 163 billion hours of music in 2025, supercharged by the platform’s social listening features.

Social features like Jam, Collaborative Playlists, Friends Mix, and Blend accounted for a staggering 782 million hours of shared music in 2025, with Collaborative Playlists and Blend being the most used social Spotify tools of the year.

While devices like speakers, tablets, and TVs also add to the shared experience, the sheer volume of listening on mobile is where social connection truly thrives.

Nearly 127 billion music hours were spent on those devices, making them the primary hub for connection. 

Kenya stands out among social tool users. The country saw interest in the shared formats, with Jam sessions growing by a phenomenal 68% and Blend hours increasing by a strong 39% year-over-year.

This growth reflects a profound engagement: Kenya streamed over 12 million times a day, marking a robust 31% increase since 2024.

Generational streaming

The remarkable growth in ‘00s (2000-2009) streaming across all age groups highlights a shared interest in music from that decade, demonstrating that nostalgia for the 2000s crosses all generations. This surge in listening includes:

• 18-24 year-olds saw a 32% increase.
• 35-44 year-olds surged by 47%.
• 45-54 year-olds grew by 56%.
• 55+ year-olds led the charge with a 74% increase.

Adding the vibrancy, there was a massive 99% increase in female playlist additions, indicating a more diverse and active community of curators. With over 2 million playlists created in Kenya, and more than 500,000 of them featuring ‘playlist’ as the top search, the data proves that listeners are not just consuming music, but actively building and sharing their sonic culture.

Kenyan love isiZulu?

Meanwhile, Zulu, a language hailing from Southern Africa, has firmly established itself as one of the top three most-streamed musical languages in Kenya, sitting right alongside the more readily found English and Swahili lyrics in Kenyan music. 

Popular hard-hitting Zulu tracks like CIZA’s Isaka (6 am) and the catchy Ngishutheni by Goon Flavour prove that the infectious rhythms, lyrical themes, and musical styles emerging from cultural hubs like Johannesburg and Durban are resonating deeply across major Kenyan cities such as Nairobi and Mombasa. 

It all tells a compelling, multi-layered story: the Kenyan audience has become expansive, as shown in this year’s Spotify Wrapped data.