Spotify pays out nearly $40b in royalties to music industry

The revelation was made when the streaming service hosted its second Stream On event in Los Angeles, USA, where the company announced updates and new tools for artists.

The report highlights the success of artists on the platform, with the number of artists generating $1m or more and those generating $10 000 or more doubling over the past five years. Spotify also claims that it pays nearly 70% of every dollar it generates from music back to the industry.

According to the report, 57 000 artists generated over $10 000 on the platform in 2022, up from 23 400 in 2017, and 1 060 artists generated more than $1 million, up from 460 in 2017.

Spotify estimates that the 50 000th highest-earning artist on its platform generated more than $50 000 across all recorded revenue sources.

Additionally, nearly 20 000 of the 57 000 artists who generated more than $10 000 on the platform in 2022 live in countries outside the IFPI’s Top 10 music markets.

At the Stream On event, Spotify also announced new product updates and tools for artists, including a new interface on mobile designed to facilitate deeper discovery and more meaningful connections between artists and fans, including a new interface on mobile that provides a more interactive and dynamic experience for users, with advanced recommendations, new visual canvases, and an interactive design that makes audio discovery easier than ever before, giving fans a more active role in the discovery process and creators more space to share their work, while fostering long-term relationships that go beyond viral success.

“Stream On is about all the ways we are bringing Spotify to life and letting creators at all stages of their careers know that we are open for business,” Spotify founder and CEO Daniel Ek said. “We are focused on building the best home for them, a place where they can establish a career, thrive, and grow, and where the world can be inspired by their creativity. And that’s what we’ve been doing for almost 17 years: building, improving, and reimagining this home to better meet creator needs and help them chart new pathways to success.”

“Today, there are more than 10 million creators on Spotify, with over half a billion listeners across 184 countries and markets,” he noted. “Think about the massive potential that it represents for creators. No matter where you are on your own creative journey within music, podcasts, or audiobooks. The potential to reach half a billion people. And that reach is about to become more powerful with what we’ve introduced today.”

Spotify announced in January that it was laying off about 600 of its workers globally, representing 6% of its workforce.