Spotify Paid Out $10 Billion, But Songwriters Are Still Salty
By Movieguide® Contributor
Looks like 2024 was a major year for streaming; Spotify reported that 1,500 artists generated over $1 million each in royalties last year.
“Spotify has helped level the playing field for artists at every stage of their careers,” the company said in their annual Loud and Clear Report. “Success in the streaming era doesn’t require a decade-spanning catalog nor a chart-topping hit.”
Of those 1,500 artists, over 80% did not have a song reach Spotify’s Global Daily Top 50 chart. This is significant as, in order to score that $1 million, an artist would have to have 4-5 million monthly listeners, or 20-25 million monthly streams.
Smaller artists aren’t the only ones raking in the big bucks. Spotify also reported that the number of artists who generated over $10 million has risen by a whopping 600% since 2017, for a grand total of 70 artists.
The streamer said it paid out a record $10 billion in royalties in 2024, which they claim is “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.”
Out of that $10 billion, about $5 billion was given to independent artists — a $500 million increase from 2023.
“It speaks to opportunities and choices that artists have today,” Sam Duboff, Spotify’s global head of marketing and policy for the music business, told The Hollywood Reporter. “A lot of what streaming and Spotify has enabled is for artists to be in more control over how they want to navigate their career.”
Duboff continued, “You’ve got tons of artists choosing to go the major label path getting life-changing advances and resources that come with that, you see indie labels in the middle with some of those same services but artists getting a larger cut, then you’ve got tons of fully independent, DIY artists who are keeping 100 percent of their royalties and promoting themselves.”
Despite these massive numbers, many in the music industry are still unhappy with Spotify.
Related: Spotify CEO Daniel Ek Breaks Silence on Rogan Free Speech Controversy
Before this year’s Grammys, a group of Grammy-nominated songwriters, including Jessi Alexander, Amy Allen, Jessie Jo Dillon, and RAYE, boycotted Spotify’s Songwriter Of The Year Grammy party. The reason? Spotify’s treatment of songwriters.
Spotify cut royalty rates on premium streams for both songwriters and publishers last year which, according to Billboard, would lead to a $150 million decrease in royalties. The streamer argued that this was because of their recent move to include audiobooks in its premium subscription tier, which has split the royalties between songwriters and publishers, and audiobooks.
“After some thought, I couldn’t in good conscience support this initiative given their approach to bundling royalties,” Dillon, who helped pen country tracks like “Lies Lies Lies” by Morgan Wallen and “Am I Okay?” by Megan Moroney, told Billboard.
She continued, “It is very nice to be individually honored, but it is better for me and my entire songwriter community to be paid fairly for our art. There are no songs without songwriters.”
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