<\/p>\n
Back in the early 2010s, the music industry was at a low point.<\/p>\n
Piracy was rampant. Compact disc sales were on a steady decline. And the then-new audio streaming services, like Spotify<\/a>, were taking hits from creators for paying low royalty rates.<\/p>\n Today, Spotify has grown into the world\u2019s most popular audio streaming subscription service and the highest-paying retailer globally \u2014 paying the music industry over $11 billion last year.<\/a> The Swedish company said in a recent post<\/a> that the payouts aren\u2019t strictly going to ultra-popular artists, but that \u201croughly half of royalties were generated by independent artists and labels.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cA decade ago, a lot of the questions were really fair. Spotify had to be able to prove out if it could scale as an economic engine. People didn\u2019t know if streaming would scale as a model,\u201d said Sam Duboff, Spotify\u2019s global head of marketing and policy of music business.<\/p>\n Duboff said Spotify\u2019s payouts aren\u2019t \u201cplateauing \u2014 we\u2019re still growing that royalty pool on Spotify more than 10% per year.\u201d He credits the streaming platform\u2019s growth to \u201cincentivizing people to be willing to pay for music again\u201d by providing personalized experiences and global accessibility.<\/p>\n The company, founded in 2006, serves more than 751 million users, including 290 million subscribers, in 184 markets.<\/p>\n \u201cThe average Spotify premium subscriber listens to 200 artists every month, and nearly half of those artists are discovered for the first time,\u201d Duboff said. \u201cWhen you build an experience where people can explore and fall in love with music, it inspires them to upgrade to premium and keep paying.\u201d<\/p>\n The platform offers a wide variety of playlists, curated by editors like the up-and-comer-driven Fresh Finds or rap\u2019s latest, RapCaviar. There are also personal playlists generated for users, such as the weekly round-up Discover Weekly and the daily mix of tunes called the \u201cdaylist.\u201d<\/p>\n The streamer considers itself the first step toward \u201can enduring career\u201d for today\u2019s indie artists. Last year, more than a third of artists making $10,000 on the platform in royalties started by self-releasing their music through independent distributors.<\/p>\n \u201cStreaming, fundamentally, is about opportunity and access. It\u2019s artists from all over the world releasing music the way they want to and reaching a global audience from Day One,\u201d Duboff said. He adds that when fans have a choice, they will discover new genres and music cultures that may have otherwise languished in obscurity.<\/p>\n In 2025, nearly 14,000 artists earned $100,000 from Spotify alone. The streamer\u2019s data also show that last year the 100,000th highest-earning artist made $7,300 in Spotify royalties, whereas in 2015, an artist in that same spot earned around $350.<\/p>\n The company, with a large presence in L.A.\u2019s Arts District, emphasizes that the roster of artists on its platform who earn significantly more money \u2014 well into the millions \u2014 is no longer limited to the few. A decade ago, Spotify\u2019s top artist made around $10 million in royalties. Today, the platform\u2019s top 80 artists generate over $10 million annually. Some of 2025\u2019s top artists globally were Bad Bunny, Taylor Swift and the Weeknd.<\/p>\n Spotify<\/a> claims those who aren\u2019t household names can earn six figures, with more than 1,500 artists earning $1 million last year.<\/p>\n Damon Krukowski, a musician and the legislative director for United Musicians & Allied Workers, argues that Spotify\u2019s money isn\u2019t necessarily going to artists \u2014 it\u2019s going to their labels. <\/p>\n Those without labels usually upload music through distributors such as DistroKid and CD Baby. These platforms charge a small fee or commission. For example, DistroKid\u2019s lowest-level subscription is $24.99 a year, and the site states users \u201ckeep 100% of all your earnings.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201dThere are zero payments going directly to recording artists from Spotify,\u201d Krukowski asserts. \u201cRecording artists deserve direct payment from the streaming platforms for use of our work.\u201d<\/p>\n The advocacy group, which has mobilized more than 70,000 musicians and music workers, recently helped draft the Living Wage for Musicians Act to address the streaming industry. The bill, introduced to the U.S. House of Representatives last fall, calls for a new streaming royalty that would directly pay artists a minimum of one penny per stream.<\/p>\nFor some musicians, the outlook is not as clear<\/h2>\n