(CelebrityAccess) — Spotify revealed that it paid out $9 billion in streaming royalties last year, according to the company’s latest “Loud and Clear” annual report.
According to Spotify, the results produced record revenues and growth for rights holders on behalf of artists and songwriters in 2023 and the highest payout from any single retailer in 2023
Additionally, those payments were increasingly reaching the indie sector, Spotify said. According to Spotify, DIY artists and artists signed to independent record labels accounted for about half of what the entire industry generated on the platform, a 4x increase since 2017.
According to Spotify, their data shows that 1,250 artists generated more than $1 million on Spotify in 2023, with the majority of them not reaching the top 50 of any global Spotify chart last year. That’s up from just 460 artists in 2017.
Artists making at least $100,000 a year on the platform ballooned to 11,600 in 2023, up from 4,300 in 2017, while artists making at least $10,000 a year from Spotify streaming reached 66,000 in 2023, more than doubling since 2017, the company said.
“More artists are succeeding and, as a result, even more are interested in becoming artists. Sure, more than 10 million uploaders have at least a single track on Spotify, but when it comes to building financial opportunities, we’re focused on those most dependent on streaming as part of their livelihood: these 225,000 emerging and professional artists that are building careers,” Spotify said.
Along with record royalty distributions, Spotify also revealed that the annual number of streams has been growing steadily year over year.
According to the platform, more than 329,000 songs were streamed over a million times in 2023 alone.
“Today, streaming has enabled more room for more artists to find success, demonstrating real change across the music business,” Spotify said in its Loud & Clear report.
