Spotify says that streaming has made the world ‘value music’

Spotify wants to see 1 billion people paying for streaming music, double the more than 500 million customers who currently subscribe to Spotify and its competitors. In Spotify’s view, artists are lucky to have streaming services, “each doing its part to normalize the behavior of paying for music.”

On Tuesday, the streaming giant announced that it paid out $10 billion to the music industry in 2024, with total contributions reaching almost $60 billion since its founding in 2006 — five years after Napster ceased operation. Spotify estimates that around 10,000 artists generated at least $10,000 per year on the platform in 2014. “Today, well over 10,000 artists generate over $100,000 per year from Spotify alone,” Spotify VP David Kaefer said in the blog post. “That’s a beautiful thing.”

In the blog, humbly titled “Getting the world to value music,” Kaefer describes the pre-streaming era of music as an exclusive club that made it difficult for new artists to enter the industry. “Now, you can record something today and have it on Spotify tomorrow,” said Kaefer. “Everyone’s invited.”

Chris Macowski, Spotify’s global head of music communications, attributes competitors’ higher per-stream rates to “low engagement” on services where subscribers “listen to less music.” Spotify optimizes for “higher overall payout,” he says.

Update, January 28th: Added comment from Spotify on per-stream payout rates.