Spotify’s Africa head discusses support for local musicians
UA.NEWS27
September
2026
05:35
In Johannesburg, <a href="https://absafricatv.com/tenth-womans-body-found-in-ekurhuleni-as-south-africa-police-probe-killings/" title="Tenth woman's body found in Ekurhuleni as South Africa police probe killings”>South Africa, Spotify’s managing director for Sub-Saharan Africa, Jocelyne Muhutu-Remy, spoke about the service’s role in promoting African music to global audiences and the challenges associated with artificial intelligence. TimesLIVE writes about her career, background and approach to cultural development in its article.
Muhutu-Remy was born and raised in Addis Ababa. Her mother was a refugee from Rwanda, while her father was from Burundi. Her mother worked as a secretary at the Organization of African Unity, now the African Union. At the age of 18, Muhutu-Remy received a scholarship from the organization to study in France, where she studied languages, journalism and international relations.
A career in media and technology
After university, she moved to Kenya, worked as a journalist and later joined Reuters. In 2009, her family moved to Johannesburg. Muhutu-Remy subsequently worked at MTV Networks Africa, including helping bring BET to the local market, as well as at Disney and Meta. She joined Spotify nearly five years ago.
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According to her, the service aims to be present where culture is created, from university campuses to townships. One memorable event for her was a Spotify event in KwaMashu dedicated to the gqom genre. She also noted that amapiano, afrobeats, gqom and African electronic music are increasingly entering international markets.
Music and artificial intelligence
Spotify supports artists through global editorial teams, marketing and the EQUAL program focused on female performers. According to Muhutu-Remy, a track from South Africa can attract the attention of a service editor in Berlin or Tokyo, while musicians can find listeners in different countries.
At the same time, she pointed to the opportunities and difficult questions created by artificial intelligence. Spotify already uses AI for personalized listening and playlist creation, while the technology can lower barriers to music creation for musicians. Among the concerns, Muhutu-Remy named synthetic artists, impersonation of performers and ownership issues. According to her, the platform is developing ways to detect AI personas and combat fraudulent tracks.
