MBW’s Stat Of The Week is a series in which we highlight a single data point that deserves the attention of the global music industry. Stat Of the Week is supported by Cinq Music Group, a technology-driven record label, distribution, and rights management company.
Spotify hosted its second Stream On event in Los Angeles on Wednesday (March 8), to announce new product updates and tools for artists.
The company also updated its annual music royalties report, Loud & Clear, in which it published a trove of stats about what artists and rightsholders earn from music on the platform.
Spotify says that “nearly 70%” of every dollar it generates from music “is paid back as royalties to rightsholders, who then pay the artists and songwriters, based on the agreed terms”.
These rightsholders include record labels, publishers, independent distributors, performance rights organizations, and collecting societies.
The headline stat published by Spotify on Wednesday is that as of 2022, Spotify’s all-time payouts to the music industry are approaching $40 billion (including both recording and publishing royalties).
Spotify announced in March last year that it had paid out $30 billion to rightsholders since its founding, including $7+ billion in 2021, which was up from $5+ billion in 2020.
(In the company’s annual report, it revealed that through December 31, 2022, it had paid more than €34 billion ($35.75bn at annual average exchange rates) in royalties to certain record labels, music publishers, and other rights holders since launch.)
Meanwhile, Spotify also revealed that in 2022, 10,100 artists generated at least $100,000 on Spotify alone. The company says that’s up from 4,300 artists five years ago.
Spotify says that these artists come from more than 100 different countries worldwide. “Streaming has lowered barriers to entry,” says Spotify. “Artists who—in the past—might have struggled for opportunities are now finding their audiences.”
Other key stats published by Spotify on Wednesday were that in 2022, 57,000 artists generated more than $10,000 on the platform (up from 23,400 in 2017). And 1,060 artists generated more than $1 million (up from 460 in 2017).
Spotify says that the number of artists generating more than $1 million, as well as those generating $10,000-plus, has more than doubled over the past five years.
Spotify notes that these “figures represent revenue generated from Spotify alone” and claims that “when taking into account earnings from other services and recorded revenue streams, these artists likely generated 4x this revenue from recorded music sources overall, plus additional revenue from concert tickets and merch.”
Of the 57,000 artists who generated more than $10,000 on the platform in 2022, Spotify says that nearly 20,000 live in countries outside the IFPI’s Top 10 music markets (Australia, Canada, China, Italy, France, Germany, Japan, South Korea, the U.K., and the U.S.).
Spotify also reports that the 50,000th highest-earning artist on its platform in 2022 generated $12,584 which was 4x the amount the 50,000th highest-earning artist generated on Spotify in 2017.
