Spotify is good for artists – that’s the message underlying almost every point made in the latest edition of the music platform’s annual Loud & Clear music economics report.
It’s a point that Spotify may feel it needs to make, given the criticism the platform has received from some artists and industry insiders about what they see as low royalty rates or unfair practices.
Witness, for instance, Snoop Dogg’s complaint about how it’s possible “to get a billion streams [on Spotify] and not get a million dollars.”
Spotify’s response? Yes, there are artists making small amounts on our platform, but there are lots and lots of them. And some (a few) of these artists are even becoming “new music millionaires.”
According to the updated report, 12 million artists uploaded at least one track to Spotify in 2024, up from 10 million in 2023.
There were 1,450 artists who generated USD $1 million or more in royalties from the platform. (That is the number of recording artists whose catalogs generated recording and publishing royalties over $1m on Spotify alone).
That figure is up from around 1,250 who generated that much in the prior year. (Spotify estimates these artists made at least $4 million each in 2024, when including other sources of income.)
Interestingly, Spotify says that more than 80% of the artists who earned over $1 million in royalties last year didn’t have a single song reach Spotify’s Global Daily Top 50 chart in 2024.
Nor are they necessarily legacy artists with a sentimental following from back in the day – the majority of them only launched their music careers after 2010.
Spotify’s takeaway? “Success in the streaming era doesn’t require a chart-topping hit or a decade-spanning catalog – it’s about building a loyal fanbase that keeps coming back.”
But it’s not just about the one-million club – there are more artists earning royalties at every income level, the Loud & Clear report says.
There were 71,200 artists who generated $10,000 or more in 2024, and 12,500 who generated $100,000 or more.
Both those groups of earners have roughly tripled in size since 2017, according to Spotify.
Nonetheless, given there are 12 million uploaders on Spotify, this means that less than 0.6% of Spotify uploaders generated at least $10,000 in 2024.
Viewed as a percentage of total uploaders, the numbers for each of those royalty-generating thresholds get even smaller the higher we go.
The 12,500 artists who generated $100,000 or more on Spotify last year represent just 0.1% of all uploaders.
And the 1,450 artists who generated over $1 million accounted for just 0.012% of Spotify’s 12 million uploaders.
What we’re looking at, according to Spotify, is the “Paradox of the Modern Music Industry.”
“Streaming has allowed millions to easily share their music globally — that’s an amazing thing,” said Spotify in the report. “But the sheer volume of uploaders means the fraction who find success appears smaller over time.”
Elsewhere in the report, Spotify said it has paid out nearly $4.5 billion to publishing rightsholders globally over the past two years, adding that the payout saw “double-digit percentage growth” from 2023 to 2024.
“Songwriters – through their publishers, PROs, and collecting societies – are generating record-breaking revenues driven by streaming services,” Spotify asserts.
Last year, Spotify said that music publishing rights holders had received nearly $4 billion of the money paid out by Spotify over the prior two years.
That new $4.5 billion stat arrives amid the platform’s bundling dispute with the MLC over mechanical royalties for songwriters and music publishers in the US.
“Songwriters – through their publishers, PROs, and collecting societies – are generating record-breaking revenues driven by streaming services.”
Spotify Loud & Clear report
The report also stresses – as Spotify had reported before – that the platform’s payouts to the wider music industry reached $10 billion in 2024, up by $1 billion from 2023.
Spotify’s music industry payout recipients include record companies and music publishers, plus independent distributors, performance rights organizations, and collecting societies.
Just a decade ago, in 2014, Spotify’s total payout was one-tenth that amount, at $1 billion.
Notably, the platform had around 15 million paying subscribers back in 2014, versus 263 million as of the end of 2024.
That actually suggests that Spotify’s payouts to rightsholders have not kept pace with the growth in its Premium subscribers. If payouts had grown 17.5-fold (as the number of subscribers did), Spotify would have paid out around $17.5 billion last year.
That said, it may not be fair to expect royalty payouts to grow exactly proportionally to subscriber numbers, as subscriptions cost less in lower-income countries, where a significant amount of Spotify’s growth has come from in recent years, and the ad-supported tiers also figure into payouts.
Nevertheless, “Spotify paid out more than any other retailer or streaming service in 2024,” the report said, adding that the $10 billion payout “is the largest in music industry history – more than any single retailer has ever paid in a year, and over 10x the contribution of the largest record store at the height of the CD era.”
Spotify also reports that independent artists and labels collectively generated more than $5 billion from the platform in 2024 representing about “half of total Spotify royalties for another year”.
The Loud & Clear report also highlights something that MBW has previously pointed out – the majors are losing market share on the platform.
According to Spotify’s latest 20-F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission, the three majors (Sony Music, Universal Music Group, and Warner Music Group) plus indie representative Merlin received 71% of Spotify’s payouts in 2024. That’s down from 74% a year earlier, and 87% back in 2017.
Spotify noted in its report that it globally “represents about one-third of overall recorded streaming revenue, but represents over 50% of indies’ streaming revenue,” the report said, citing data from IFPI and MIDiA.
In the view of the Loud & Clear report, “That over-index of Spotify in indies’ revenue shows that our model uniquely creates more opportunities for more artists to build sustainable careers in music”.
“Thanks to streaming, more artists than ever before are generating royalties at every career stage. More than at any time in music history. And we think that’s what really matters.”
Spotify Loud & Clear report
Yet the report notes a problem with the proliferation of indie and DIY artists that others in the business have noted before: As the number of artists grows rapidly, becoming discovered as an artist becomes more difficult.
Spotify’s explanation of what it calls the “paradox of the music industry,” as detailed above, highlights this reality.
The company argues, however, “thanks to streaming, more artists than ever before are generating royalties at every career stage” and that “more than at any time in music history. And we think that’s what really matters.”
Elsewhere in the report, Spotify revealed that “more artists are succeeding across borders, with more languages and diverse voices breaking into the mainstream”.
According to Spotify, in 2024, the artists who generated at least $100,000 in royalties in 2024 recorded music in over 50 languages, while the artists who generated at least $1 million on Spotify recorded music in 17 different languages, both more than double the languages at those thresholds in 2017.
Spotify also highlighted how “global fandom fuels artist success”. The report noted that over 50% of the artists who generated at least $1,000 in royalties on Spotify in 2024 made the majority of their earnings from listeners outside their home country.
The company said that “this demonstrates the pivotal role that export plays in the success and sustainability of an artist’s career”.
Around one-third of artists who generated at least $1,000 saw more than 75% of their royalties come from outside their home countries.
And at the $100,000 level, over 80% of these artists “have teamed up with musicians from abroad”.
One final notable tidbit from the report: Spotify notes that while there are currently 500 million paying music streaming subscribers worldwide (IFPI), “a future with one billion paying listeners is within reach.”
Chartmetric is the all-in-one platform for artists and music industry professionals, providing comprehensive streaming, social, and audience data for everyone to create successful careers in music.Music Business Worldwide
