In 2024, Spotify paid an average of $3 per 1,000 streams to independent artists. The European streaming service ranks last in this area, behind YouTube ($4.8), Apple Music ($6.2) and Amazon Music ($8.8). A position the dominant platform is used to: it is the least generous to artists since (at least) 2021, according to the annual report from Duetti, which allows independent artists to monetize their catalog by selling shares of their tracks.
Spotify bares its claws
The report explains that Spotify continues to post the lowest pay rates due to its reliance on ad-supported subscriptions, its larger market share, its geographic distribution, and its Discovery Mode program. The latter allows participating artists to benefit from greater exposure, in exchange for a reduction in their compensation (by 30%, there really is not much left at the end). Spotify's level of remuneration remains as low as ever despite the increase in the prices of its subscriptions!
YouTube recorded the largest annual increase (+$0.5) thanks to the contribution of paid subscriptions compared to advertising revenue, even if the rates per listen vary enormously depending on the artists and the diversity of revenue sources.
Apple Music maintains high payments thanks to its presence in high-power markets purchase and the absence of an ad-supported subscription. Finally, among the major platforms, Amazon Music continues to pay the highest rate to artists because its services are included in Prime subscriptions.
Overall, artists are not exactly celebrating: on average, 1,000 streams are worth $3.41, a figure down from 2023 ($3.46). A figure down 2% year-on-year is not great news, but Duetti still calls it “stabilization.” Since 2021, remuneration has in fact collapsed by 7% each year…
Spotify reacted strongly to the publication of this report. "These claims are ridiculous and unfounded. No streaming service pays per stream because that would incentivize services to minimize streams,” a company spokesperson said. “This would lead to lower engagement, fewer connections with artists, and lower overall payouts.” The rep said the report doesn’t “reflect” the reality of Spotify and other streaming services that don’t pay “per stream” rates. Instead, they divide a pool of royalties among music played each month, proportional to the share of streams. An artist or label can, however, divide their payments by the number of streams received to calculate a “per stream” total. This is the methodology used in studies (like Duetti's) when they publish comparisons based on pay-per-play.
Spotify also points out on its blog that it will pay $10 billion to the music industry in 2024, a total of $60 billion since 2014. The platform actually contributes to a third of the industry's revenue, according to the Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI). Ten years ago, "around 10,000 artists were generating at least $10,000 per year on Spotify. Today, over 10,000 artists generate over $100,000 per year on Spotify.
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