Spotify says it will pay $11 billion in royalties in 2025

Spotify announced today that it has made the payment More than $11 billion For the music industry in 2025. That’s an impressive number of $1 billion more Paid last year. According to Spotify, this represents approximately 30 percent of the revenue of the entire recording industry. According to Spotify, this represents approximately 30 percent of the revenue of the entire recording industry. But this number is just a measure Royalties It is paid to the music industry and does not include merchandise or ticket sales, nor does it include royalties from audiobooks or podcast deals.

However, it’s important to note that this doesn’t mean Spotify paid $11 billion to musicians and artists. This money went to the “rights holders”. This includes labels, distributors, publishers, and more.

Spotify says it has no idea how much of that money eventually finds its way into artists’ hands. Agreements for individual artists can vary greatly. However, it is not uncommon to see work on a major brand a little like 15 percent From their royalties. Although independent labels usually offer much more than that Favorable dealswith 50 percent Or more go to the artist.

Spotify says that again, nearly half of these royalties were paid to independent artists and labels. This includes DIY acts that self-release music through distribution services like DistroKid or TuneCore, as well as those signed to independent labels. But it will also likely include library content and some so-called “Ghost artists“, which was a topic Controversy. Chris Makowski, Spotify’s global head of music communications, says the company doesn’t have more detailed data on how it splits payments for independent acts.

Makovsky said more than 12,500 artists generated more than $100,000 in revenue in 2025. That’s up from 10,000 in 2024. Spotify claims that’s more than the number of artists stocked on shelves in record stores “at the height of the CD era.” but, Edge He could not independently verify this claim, and Macowski was unable to provide sources at the time of publication.

Since royalties are calculated by dividing a limited pool of money, the more songs are streamed, the lower the per-stream payments to artists. Unless Spotify decides to take a smaller share of the revenue (it currently keeps 30 percent), the only way to grow this pool is to either grow its subscriber base or Raising prices. artists with Less than 1000 streams You still do not receive any compensation from Spotify.

In its post announcing $11 billion in royalty payments, Spotify also teased future plans that appear aimed at addressing the criticism it receives. For example, he promises that there are “new solutions” in the pipeline to address scams, artist impersonation, etc Spam content. It admits that “AI is being exploited by bad actors to flood streaming services with low quality,” in an attempt to steal revenue from real artists, so it will make changes to artist verification.

The company also seems to be fully inclined to do so Human treatment In response to the growing backlash Against the algorithm. She said it would “bring more of the human voice behind this curation into the listening experience.”
However, none of that is likely to quell persistent complaints from artists using Spotify Pays less than its competitors.