Spotify paid the music industry $10 billion in 2024
Spotify has reported that it paid $10 billion to the music industry in 2024 – a new record. It should be noted that this money did not go exclusively to artists, but various partners such as publishers are also involved. The streaming service says that currently over 10,000 artists each earn over $100,000 per year with Spotify. You can find a more detailed breakdown here. Some make a lot of money – 1,250 artists have earned over $1 million with the Swedish provider alone and 60 have earned over $10 million in a year.
To understand the change: ten years ago, in 2014, there were about 10,000 artists who earned at least $10,000 per year from Spotify alone. To date, the streaming service has paid out almost $60 billion to the music industry. Spotify pays $3.0 per 1,000 streams, based on data from Duetti (a music funding platform), while YouTube, Apple Music, and Amazon Music pay $4.8, $6.2, and $8.8 per 1,000 streams (2024 figures).
Spotify cites customer retention as one of the main reasons for its success. Things like curated playlists and the AI DJ feature help keep listeners coming back. The free tier, funded by ads, is also important as it makes user onboarding easier. 60% of premium subscribers started with the ad tier. Another reason for its success is launching in different markets and adjusting pricing to those markets.
Currently, there are over 500 million total paying subscribers for the various music streaming services. Spotify itself has around 252 million subscribers. However, the company believes it is possible to reach 1 billion paying subscribers across all services in the near future.
