The music industry is failing emerging artists, according to Amaarae, who says that despite an abundance of talented musicians creating innovative work, the infrastructure to help audiences discover them has collapsed.
Speaking exclusively to Nana Kojo Mula of Ghana Music, the Ghanaian-American artist delivered a stark critique of how streaming platforms and industry neglect have created what she calls a discoverability crisis for artists who don’t fit algorithmic molds.
“I think music is in a worse place than it was then,” Amaarae said, reflecting on how the landscape has shifted for new talent. The artist, whose genre-blending sound has earned international acclaim, says her own attempts to find and promote emerging artists have revealed deep systemic problems.
According to Amaarae, the issue isn’t a lack of quality music but rather a failure by record labels and the industry at large to invest in making that music visible. “I don’t think that the industry or labels are putting in marketing fuel, creating visibility, or taking moments for artists that are creating and really amplifying that,” she explained.
The famed popstar described herself as someone who actively searches for new music to champion, making her observations particularly pointed. “There’s so much intriguing music out, and there are no real platforms to give these voices a proper space to be heard,” she said.
Amaarae traced the problem to the disappearance of discovery tools that once helped artists break through. She cited SoundCloud and the music blog era as examples of ecosystems that genuinely supported emerging talent before being displaced by algorithm-dominated platforms.
“I feel we threw that away, and we are bound to just the pain of an algorithm,” she said, using language that captures the frustration many artists feel about current streaming and social media systems.
The artist’s most pointed criticism was reserved for how algorithms inherently disadvantage certain types of creativity. “It becomes increasingly difficult to find artists whose strong suit may not be in serving the algorithm,” Amaarae noted, suggesting that the current system rewards those who optimize for platform metrics rather than those focused purely on artistic innovation.
For Amaarae, whose own career has flourished despite—or perhaps because of—her refusal to conform to conventional genre boundaries, the stakes are clear: without better discovery mechanisms, the industry risks losing exactly the kind of unique voices that push music forward.
