Spotify, one of the world’s leading music streaming platforms, plays a significant role in the careers of independent artists. Here’s an explanation of how Spotify benefits independent musicians:
Per-Stream Payout: Spotify pays artists based on the number of streams their songs receive. The payout per stream is relatively low, often a fraction of a cent. The exact amount can vary based on factors like the listener’s location and whether the artist is signed to a major label or an independent artist.
As of the status quo, it’s 0.7% of artists who rake in 90% of the revenues. At their “Stream On” event in 2020, Spotify announced that they paid out more than $5 billion. 4.5 billion therefore went to only 57,000 artists (or rather, their labels), which on average equals $79,000 per artist. But even among this this 0.7% elite there are massive differences: 800 artists received $1 million or more and 7,500 artists made over $100,000. So, even in the top elite there are around 49,000 artists who made less than $100,000 per year, while only 0.1% of all artists made six figures. At the same time, a total of 800 artists received around 20% of the total payout. The numbers emphasize why more and more artists are demanding a change in the way revenues are distributed. What such a system change can look like will be regularly covered in our iGroove magazine.
According to Spotify, there are 8 million artists on the platform who released a total of 1.8 million albums (including singles, they make up the aforementioned 22 million tracks). But out of these 8 million artists, only 57,000 are responsible for 90% of all streams on Spotify. That may sound like a small number, but it’s four times as many as it was six years ago. Spotify projects this number to go up to around 100,000 by 2023.
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