loudandclear.byspotify.comLoud & Clear

Loud & Clear The Payouts The Process Additional Resources Your Questions, Answered en English Français Deutsch Español de Latinoamérica Português do Brasil INTRO 01 Spotify’s Record Payouts 02 More Money at Every Level 03 Breaking the Language Barrier 04 A Record Year for Indies 05 The Unexpected Millionaires 06 Music Publishing Hits a New Peak 07 Numbers in Context 08 Artist Career Growth 09 The Streaming Opportunity 10 The Growing Number of Streams ALL Our Annual Music Economics Report Artists deserve clarity about the economics of music streaming. This site aims to increase transparency by sharing new data on Spotify’s royalty payments and breaking down the global streaming economy, the players, and the process. Explore the site for our top 10 findings from recent data. 01 Spotify’s Record Payouts 02 More Money at Every Level 03 Breaking the Language Barrier 04 A Record Year for Indies 05 The Unexpected Millionaires 06 Music Publishing Hits a New Peak 07 Numbers in Context 08 Artist Career Growth 09 The Streaming Opportunity 10 The Growing Number of Streams 01 / 10 Close Share Spotify’s Record Payouts For another year, Spotify set the record for the highest annual payment to the music industry from any single retailer: $9B+ That figure has nearly tripled over the past six years, and represents a big part of the $48B+ Spotify has paid since its founding $9B+ 01 / 10 01 / 10 Close Share Spotify’s Record Payouts For another year, Spotify set the record for the highest annual payment to the music industry from any single retailer: $9B+ . That figure has nearly tripled over the past six years, and represents a big part of the $48B+ Spotify has paid since its founding. Every year, Spotify has paid out more and more money in streaming royalties, resulting in record revenues and growth for rights holders on behalf of artists and songwriters. These rights holders include record labels, publishers, independent distributors, performance rights organizations, and collecting societies. SCROLL Additional Details Less Details More Money at Every Level The number of artists generating at least $1M, $100K and $10K, has nearly tripled since 2017 Number of artists 66,000 23,400 $10K+ $100K+ $1M+ 11,600 4,300 460 1,250 2017 2023 02 / 10 02 / 10 Close Share More Money at Every Level The number of artists generating at least $1M, $100K and $10K, has nearly tripled since 2017 Spotify royalties are powering artists’ careers at all stages. In fact, the number of artists generating revenue at every threshold shared on this site — from $1,000 through $10 million per year — has nearly tripled since 2017. These figures represent revenue generated from Spotify alone. When taking into account earnings from other services and recorded revenue streams, these artists likely generated 4x this revenue from recorded music sources overall , plus additional revenue from concert tickets and merch. SCROLL Additional Details Less Details Breaking the Language Barrier Over half of the artists who generated at least $10K on Spotify are from countries where English is not the first language 03 / 10 03 / 10 Close Share Breaking the Language Barrier Over half of the artists who generated at least $10K on Spotify are from countries where English is not the first language The fact that streaming lowered barriers to entry is old news. But the impact on artists’ livelihoods, and the global diversity of that impact, is becoming more clear. Of the 66,000 artists who generated at least $10,000 on Spotify alone – and likely $40,000 across all recorded revenue sources – more than half are from countries where English is not the first language. Artists who—in the past—might have struggled to break through are now finding their audiences, and the music industry today is a more diverse and accurate reflection of the world we live in. Spanish, German, Portuguese, French, and Korean lead the pack for performance in languages other than English – while Hindi, Indonesian, Punjabi, Tamil, and Greek all saw huge upticks in 2023. SCROLL Additional Details Less Details A Record Year for Indies In 2023, Indies generated nearly $4.5B on Spotify This marks the first year ever that Indies accounted for about half of what the entire industry generated on Spotify, which totaled $9B+ $4.5B 04 / 10 04 / 10 Close Share A Record Year for Indies In 2023, Indies generated nearly $4.5B on Spotify . This marks the first year ever that Indies accounted for about half of what the entire industry generated on Spotify, which totaled $9B+ . For the first time ever, the catalogs of DIY artists and artists signed to independent record labels represented about half of all revenues generated on Spotify in 2023. Totaling nearly $4.5B, this represents a 4x increase since 2017. This is the highest amount Indies have ever generated from a single retailer in one year. SCROLL Additional Details Less Details The Unexpected Millionaires Many of the artists who generated at least $1M on Spotify in 2023 aren’t household names and didn’t need a hit” song to have a big year 80% of them didn’t have a song reach the Top 50 of Spotify’s Daily Global Songs chart 05 / 10 05 / 10 Close Share The Unexpected Millionaires Many of the artists who generated at least $1M on Spotify in 2023 aren’t household names and didn’t need a hit” song to have a big year 80% of them didn’t have a song reach the Top 50 of Spotify’s Daily Global Songs chart I n the streaming era, the charts aren’t big enough to contain all of the artists finding success. Fans’ tastes are more diverse, and the royalty pool is increasingly massive ($9B+!) – which means more revenue to a wider range of artists. You’d be surprised to see the artists who generated a million dollars on Spotify last year. Many aren’t household names and didn’t need a hit” song to have a big year. Of the 1,250+ artists who generated $1M+ from Spotify alone – and likely over $4M across all recorded revenue sources – over 1,000 of them didn’t have a single song that reached Spotify’s Global Top 50 all year. This list is not just classic, generation-spanning artists. The majority of the artists generating $1M+ started their careers in 2010 or later. As a rule of thumb, artists can start approaching $1 million per year with around 4-5 million monthly listeners or 20-25 million monthly streams. SCROLL Additional Details Less Details Music Publishing Hits a New Peak Spotify paid out nearly $4B to publishing rights holders over the last two years Spotify Spotify Songwriters’ Rights Holders Songwriters’ Rights Holders Nearly $4B over the last two years 06 / 10 06 / 10 Close Share Music Publishing Hits a New Peak Spotify paid out nearly $4B to publishing rights holders – who represent songwriters – over the last two years. Songwriters — through their publishing rights holders — are generating record-breaking revenues, driven by streaming services. Over the last two years, Spotify has paid out nearly $4 billion to publishers, performance rights organizations, and collecting societies that represent songwriters. Publishers, songwriters and their CMOs are seeing more than 2x the revenue ($5.5B in 2022) in the streaming era than they ever had in the CD/sales era ($2.5B in 2001), per the Global Value of Music Copyright . SCROLL Additional Details Less Details Numbers in Context On Spotify in 2023 10M+ uploaders had at least a single track ~8M had less than 10 tracks all time ~5M+ had less than 100 total streams across their full catalog We’re focused on those most dependent on streaming as part of their livelihood: The 225K Emerging & Professional Artists 07 / 10 07 / 10 Close Share Numbers in Context More artists are succeeding and, as a result, even more are interested in becoming artists. Sure, more than 10 million uploaders have at least a single track on Spotify, but when it comes to building financial opportunities, we’re focused on those most dependent on streaming as part of their livelihood: these 225,000 emerging...