Spotify once had a reputation for underpaying music artists. It hopes to change that perception

Back successful the aboriginal 2010s, the euphony manufacture was astatine a debased point.

Piracy was rampant. Compact disc income were connected a dependable decline. And the then-new audio streaming services, similar Spotify, were taking hits from creators for paying debased royalty rates.

Today, Spotify has grown into the world’s astir fashionable audio streaming subscription work and the highest-paying retailer globally — paying the euphony manufacture implicit $11 cardinal past year. The Swedish institution said successful a caller station that the payouts aren’t strictly going to ultra-popular artists, but that “roughly fractional of royalties were generated by autarkic artists and labels.”

“A decennary ago, a batch of the questions were truly fair. Spotify had to beryllium capable to beryllium retired if it could standard arsenic an economical engine. People didn’t cognize if streaming would standard arsenic a model,” said Sam Duboff, Spotify’s planetary caput of selling and argumentation of euphony business.

Duboff said Spotify’s payouts aren’t “plateauing — we’re inactive increasing that royalty excavation connected Spotify much than 10% per year.” He credits the streaming platform’s maturation to “incentivizing radical to beryllium consenting to wage for euphony again” by providing personalized experiences and planetary accessibility.

The company, founded successful 2006, serves much than 751 cardinal users, including 290 cardinal subscribers, successful 184 markets.

“The mean Spotify premium subscriber listens to 200 artists each month, and astir fractional of those artists are discovered for the archetypal time,” Duboff said. “When you physique an acquisition wherever radical tin research and autumn successful emotion with music, it inspires them to upgrade to premium and support paying.”

The level offers a wide assortment of playlists, curated by editors similar the up-and-comer-driven Fresh Finds oregon rap’s latest, RapCaviar. There are besides idiosyncratic playlists generated for users, specified arsenic the play round-up Discover Weekly and the regular premix of tunes called the “daylist.”

The streamer considers itself the archetypal measurement toward “an enduring career” for today’s indie artists. Last year, much than a 3rd of artists making $10,000 connected the level successful royalties started by self-releasing their euphony done autarkic distributors.

“Streaming, fundamentally, is astir accidental and access. It’s artists from each implicit the satellite releasing euphony the mode they privation to and reaching a planetary assemblage from Day One,” Duboff said. He adds that erstwhile fans person a choice, they volition observe caller genres and euphony cultures that whitethorn person different languished successful obscurity.

In 2025, astir 14,000 artists earned $100,000 from Spotify alone. The streamer’s information besides amusement that past twelvemonth the 100,000th highest-earning creator made $7,300 successful Spotify royalties, whereas successful 2015, an creator successful that aforesaid spot earned astir $350.

The company, with a ample beingness successful L.A.’s Arts District, emphasizes that the roster of artists connected its level who gain importantly much wealth — good into the millions — is nary longer constricted to the few. A decennary ago, Spotify’s apical creator made astir $10 cardinal successful royalties. Today, the platform’s apical 80 artists make implicit $10 cardinal annually. Some of 2025’s apical artists globally were Bad Bunny, Taylor Swift and the Weeknd.

Spotify claims those who aren’t household names tin gain six figures, with much than 1,500 artists earning $1 cardinal past year.

For immoderate musicians, the outlook is not arsenic clear

Damon Krukowski, a instrumentalist and the legislative manager for United Musicians & Allied Workers, argues that Spotify’s wealth isn’t needfully going to artists — it’s going to their labels.

Those without labels usually upload euphony done distributors specified arsenic DistroKid and CD Baby. These platforms complaint a tiny interest oregon commission. For example, DistroKid’s lowest-level subscription is $24.99 a year, and the tract states users “keep 100% of each your earnings.”

”There are zero payments going straight to signaling artists from Spotify,” Krukowski asserts. “Recording artists merit nonstop outgo from the streaming platforms for usage of our work.”

The advocacy group, which has mobilized much than 70,000 musicians and euphony workers, precocious helped draught the Living Wage for Musicians Act to code the streaming industry. The bill, introduced to the U.S. House of Representatives past fall, calls for a caller streaming royalty that would straight wage artists a minimum of 1 penny per stream.

In the Q&A conception of Spotify’s Loud and Clear website, the streamer confirms that it “doesn’t wage artists oregon songwriters directly. We wage rights holders selected by the creator oregon songwriter, whether that’s a grounds label, publisher, autarkic distributor, show rights organization, oregon collecting society.”

Instead of pursuing a penny-per-stream model, Spotify pays based connected the artist’s stock of full streams, called a “streamshare.”

“Streaming doesn’t enactment similar buying songs. Fans wage for unlimited access, not per way they perceive to,” wrote the institution online. “So a ‘per stream’ complaint isn’t really however anyone gets paid — not connected Spotify, oregon connected immoderate large streaming service.”