Spotify paid out $9 billion in music rights in 2023, with $4.5 billion going to independent artists. That huge pool of money is shared among hundreds of thousands of artists — some rich enough to live without royalty checks, while many others need streaming to keep the lights on.
The number of artists earning at least $10,000 in royalties from Spotify rose 16% to 66,000, according to the company's latest figures Loud and clear reference released on Tuesday (March 19). This was twice the growth rate of artists earning at least $10,000 compared to the 8% increase seen in 2022, when that number rose to 57,000.
The number of artists reaching other milestones also increased at a higher clip in 2023 than in 2022. Last year, the number of artists earning $100,000 from Spotify in 2023 rose 15% to 11,600, compared to 10,100 the year before. when the number increased by 6%. And there were 1,250 artists who made more than $1 million from Spotify in 2023, up 18% from 1,060 in 2022, when the $1 million club grew by just 2%.
The company's fourth annual Loud & Clear show provides an update on the company's goal of giving 1 million creators the opportunity to make a living from their art, a statement citing CEO Daniel Ek at the company's 2017 investor day presentation. The amount an artist needs to pay the bills varies by country, but it's safe to say that Spotify doesn't allow 1 million artists to quit their day jobs and work musicians.
However, the number of artists who have made what could be called a significant amount of royalties on the platform continues to grow. The number of artists who earned $10,000 from Spotify last year (66,000) was 2.8 times more than the 23,400 who reached that level in 2017. Compared to 2017, the number of artists who reached the $100,000 mark in 2023 (11,600 times higher). and the number of artists who earned $1 million (4,300) last year was also 2.7 times higher. During that period, Spotify's annual revenue grew 3.2 times, rising from 4.1 billion euros ($4.6 billion) to 13.2 billion euros ($14.3 billion), according to financial company statements.
By Spotify's own estimate, the universe of working musicians is much larger than the 66,000 artists who earned $10,000 last year. says the company there are 225,000 emerging or professional recording artists worldwide. Separately, 235,000 artists have released at least 10 songs in their career, a group that averages at least 10,000 monthly listeners.
Loud & Clear highlights how independent artists can make a living from streaming royalties. Last year, a quarter of the 66,000 artists in the $10,000 club self-distributed through do-it-yourself platforms like DistroKid and TuneCore. Unlike artists signed to record labels, self-distributed artists can collect their entire streaming royalties minus any distribution fees. Artists signed to labels may make more overall than independent artists, but they earn a fraction of the total revenue and must pay advances and marketing and promotion expenses.
Another point of emphasis at Loud & Clear is that streaming benefits artists around the world. Indeed, the global nature of streaming platforms means that music can easily travel from any corner of the globe to a mature streaming market where a high proportion of paid subscribers provides attractive royalties compared to ad-supported platforms. Of the 66,000 artists who generated at least $10,000 in Spotify royalties in 2023, more than half come from countries where English is not the first language. That's not surprising given that Spotify is available in 184 countries and territories and has a significant presence in major markets — such as India, Mexico, Brazil, Spain and France — with strong local, non-English music scenes.
To find out which artists might be in Spotify's $1 million club, Advertising sign reviewed a list of Luminate's top 1,000 artists in the US ranked by on-demand audio streaming. The list includes some new artists who have found success in the streaming era — like Jelly Roll (No. 66), The Neighborhood (No. 102) and PinkPantheress (No. 144) — and rely on streaming rights more than more established artists with more touring success.
Many of the top streaming artists are bigger musicians who earn far more from touring than from streaming rights: Fleetwood Mac (No. 54), George Strait (No. 97), AC/DC (No. 110), Elton John (No. .125). ), P!nk (No. 128), Billy Joel (No. 169), Journey (No. 172), Motley Crue (No. 395) and Garth Brooks (No. 489), among many others.
The top 1,000 list also includes bands that broke up long ago or haven't released new music in decades: Beatles (No. 49), Queen (No. 87), Nirvana (No. 112), Creedence Clearwater Revival ( No. 134), Led Zeppelin (No. 151), Abba (No. 318), Bee Gees (No. 328), The Smiths (No. 341) and The Grateful Dead (No. 444). These music royalties are undoubtedly welcome, but these artists are certainly financially secure without them.
Other top artists who have died: Juice WRLD (No. 15), 2Pac (No. 89), Frank Sinatra (No. 109), Elvis Presley (No. 146), Notorious BIG (No. 150), Bob Marley (No. 167), Johnny Cash (No. 245), Dean Martin (No. 336), Prince (No. 362), Jimmy Buffett (No. 425), Tom Petty (No. 428), David Bowie (No. 441). ) and John Denver (No. 470).
Some artists don't even pocket their rights to Spotify because they sold their rights to investors. Katy Perry (No. 82) sold her recorded music catalog to Litmus Capital. Kenny Chesney (No. 157) has sold a majority stake in his recorded music catalog to Hipgnosis Song Management. Jason Aldean (No. 50) sold a portion of his recorded music catalog to Spirit Music Group. Primary Wave acquired a 50% share of Whitney Houston's master recording revenue. The list of contemporary artists who have sold their publishing rights is long. the list also includes Future (No. 12), Bruno Mars (No. 57), Imagine Dragons (No. 58) and Metro Boomin (No. 132).
However, artists in the $1 million club are outliers. Anyone lucky enough to make $1 million a year from Spotify already makes a good living from tours, merchandise, endorsements and other areas. Loud & Clear's purpose is to highlight the financial opportunities Spotify provides to those artists the report calls “most dependent on streaming as part of their livelihood.” For this middle class of artists, streaming pays much better than it has in the past. While only a small fraction of the 1 million artists can say they make a living from Spotify, the number grows every year.
from our partners at https://www.billboard.com/business/streaming/spotify-paid-million-artists-2023-who-are-they-1235636561/
