Spotify released their Annual Music Economics Report report (3/19), which includes some heavy stats, stating that it paid out $9b to the music industry in 2023. Among the data: The number of artists generating $1m, $100k and $10k has nearly tripled since 2017; indie artists generated $4.5b last year; and publishing rightsholders are earning more now than in the CD era.

Here’s a summary of key points from the report.

Record Payments: Spotify has consistently set records for the highest annual payment to the music industry from any single retailer, exceeding $9 billion in 2023. This figure has nearly tripled over the past six years, representing a significant portion of the $48 billion+ Spotify has paid since its founding.

Revenue Distribution: Spotify has distributed billions of dollars in royalties since its inception, contributing significantly to the growth of the music industry. The platform pays out royalties to various stakeholders, including record labels, publishers, independent distributors, performance rights organizations, and collecting societies.

Artist Earnings: The number of artists generating at least $1 million, $100,000, and $10,000 has nearly tripled since 2017. These figures represent revenue generated solely from Spotify; when considering earnings from other services and recorded revenue streams, artists likely generated four times this revenue from recorded music sources overall, plus additional revenue from concert tickets and merch.

Language Diversity: Over half of the artists who generated at least $10,000 on Spotify are from countries where English is not the first language. This indicates that streaming has broken language barriers and promoted global diversity in the music industry.

Indie Success: In 2023, independent artists and labels generated nearly $4.5 billion on Spotify, marking the first year they accounted for about half of what the entire industry generated on the platform.

Unexpected Millionaires: Many artists who generated at least $1 million on Spotify in 2023 were not household names and did not rely on a hit song to have a successful year. 80% of these artists didn’t have a song reach the Top 50 of Spotify’s Daily Global Songs chart.

Music Publishing: Spotify paid out nearly $4 billion to publishing rights holders over the last two years, driving record-breaking revenues for songwriters. Publishers, songwriters, and their collective management organizations (CMOs) are seeing more than twice the revenue ($5.5 billion in 2022) in the streaming era than they ever had in the CD/sales era ($2.5 billion in 2001).

Artist Career Growth: Spotify has played a crucial role in the growth of artists’ careers, with four out of five artists who generated at least $10,000+ in 2017 still generating at least that much in 2023. Nearly half of the 23,400 artists who generated $10,000 in 2017 went on to earn more than $50,000 in 2023, and likely $200,000 overall across all recorded revenue sources.

Streaming Opportunity: The streaming era has enabled more artists to find success, with the overwhelming majority of artists on Spotify unlikely to have had music on the shelf in the CD era. Even the 50,000th ranked artist generates nearly six times more than the 50,000th artist earned in 2017.

Growing Number of Streams: The number of annual streams needed to rank in the top 250K, 100K, and 10K tracks has grown over time, reflecting the increasing scale of streaming services and the evolving landscape of music consumption.
These topics demonstrate the transformative impact of streaming platforms like Spotify on the music industry, providing more opportunities for artists to find success and generate significant revenue.

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