The music streaming service Spotify announced a record-breaking $10 billion payout. #Powerjournalist Markos Papadatos has the scoop.
A Record $10 Billion Payout
For another year, Spotify was the highest-paying retailer globally — paying the music industry over $10 billion in 2024. This brings total lifetime payouts to nearly $60 billion. Spotify paid out more than any other retailer or streaming service in 2024, but that’s not all. Our $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.
Streaming’s Rising Tide
In the decade from 2014 to 2024, Spotify’s yearly payouts to the music industry increased 10x from $1 billion to over $10 billion. In 2014, the music industry hit a low point when global recorded music revenues were only $13 billion. Spotify’s annual contribution was around $1 billion at the time, with around 15 million paying subscribers. Spotify has been on a mission to get the world to value music again — and the system we’ve built together is working. Since the low point, global recorded revenue has more than doubled to over $28 billion in 2023 (IFPI). Today, there are well over 500 million paying listeners across all music streaming services.
Paradox of the Modern Music Industry
There are more artists making more money on Spotify than ever before. In fact, the number of artists generating royalties at every threshold on this site — from $1,000 to $10 million per year* — has at least tripled since 2017. Ten years ago, the top artist on Spotify generated just over $5 million. Today, there are over 200 artists who have passed that threshold. Know what’s grown even faster? The number of uploaders to Spotify, which is now nearly 12 million. Looking back to the peak of the CD era, only a few thousand artists had their music on the shelves of record stores.
The paradox? Streaming has allowed millions to easily share their music globally — that’s an amazing thing. But the sheer volume of uploaders means the fraction who find success appears smaller over time. The fact remains: 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.
The 100,000th Artist, Thousands in Royalties
Over the past decade, the 100,000th-ranked* artist on Spotify has seen their generated royalties multiply by over 10x – increasing from well under $600 in 2014 to almost $6,000 in 2024. During that same time period, the 10,000th-ranked artist on Spotify has seen their royalties increase almost 4x – from $34K to $131K. As a point of comparison, at the peak of the CD era, Tower Records carried only 50,000 CDs from thousands of artists in total (source). Today, however, over 100,000 artists are generating thousands in royalties on Spotify alone.
Another Record Year for Songwriters
Spotify paid out nearly $4.5 billion to publishing rights holders – who represent songwriters – over the last two years. Our music-publishing payout hit a new peak in 2024, seeing double-digit-percentage growth compared to 2023. Songwriters – through their publishers, PROs, and collecting societies – are generating record-breaking revenues driven by streaming services.
New Music Millionaires
In 2024, nearly 1,500 artists generated over $1M* in royalties from Spotify alone – and likely over $4M across all recorded revenue sources. This isn’t just a story about household names: 80% of these artists didn’t have a song reach the Spotify Global Daily Top 50 chart in 2024. It’s not just about legacy artists either, as the majority didn’t even launch their careers until 2010 or later. Over 80% of them are actively touring artists with at least one ticketed event in 2024. 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.
The Export Factor
Most professional and emerging artists see more money come from abroad than from their home markets: Of the artists who generated $1K+ in royalties on Spotify in 2024, more than half saw most of their royalties come from listeners outside of their home countries. In fact, almost one-third of them generated more than 75% of their royalties from listeners outside their home countries. Meanwhile, over half of all artists generating $1K+ have collaborated with at least one artist from another country.
And more than 80% of all artists generating $100K+ have collaborated with at least one artist from abroad. As Spotify’s listener base continues to expand globally, artists are increasingly able to connect with fans far beyond their home markets — growing their reach and their earning potential on a global scale.
Music Is Multilingual
Music from around the world is thriving like never before — artists everywhere are breaking barriers and reaching new heights. In 2024, the artists who generated at least $1 million on Spotify recorded music in 17 different languages. That’s up more than double from 2017. The artists who generated at least $100K in royalties have recorded music in over 50 languages — also more than double the number of languages at that threshold in 2017.
The Sustained Rise of Indies
In 2024, independent artists and labels collectively* generated more than $5 billion from Spotify — representing about half of total Spotify royalties for another year. Spotify globally represents about one-third of overall recorded streaming revenue (IFPI), but represents over 50% of Indies’ streaming revenue (MIDiA). 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.
One in a Million
In 2024, for the first time ever, an artist who received one in every million streams on Spotify generated over $10,000 on average. That’s 10x what the same streamshare would have generated a decade ago. Major streaming services all calculate payouts the same way: based on streamshare (if an artist’s catalog accounts for 1% of total streams, it would earn 1% of total royalties). Still, misconceptions about “per-stream rates” remain widespread.
Streaming services don’t pay out based on a fixed per-stream rate — just like listeners don’t pay per song they listen to. Across services, each subscriber contributes roughly the same amount to the royalty pool. So, a higher “per-stream rate” just means that users are streaming less. Think about it: If a service had a “per-stream rate” of $1, that would mean each subscriber, on average, only streams about 10 times per month.
Clearly, a service like that isn’t providing much value, making it unlikely that users would keep paying for it. Artists earn more on Spotify for the same level of popularity. In 2024, 0.0001% of total streams generated over $10,000 on average. One in a million? That’s more valuable than ever before — and more valuable here than anywhere else.
