How much money have the top 10 artists earned on Spotify in 2025?
A rough calculation of the amount some of the most-streamed artists have earned on the music streaming platform as of January 2025.
Most major streaming services, including Spotify, do not pay artists a flat rate per stream. Instead, they use a pro-rata payment model. This collects all advertising and subscription revenue over a month, then shares 70% (with the other 30% going to Spotify) with artists based on how many streams they accrued during that month.
Not all streams are created equally. The price of a Spotify Premium subscription varies around the world, as does the amount advertisers pay out based on various factors. Streaming revenue can also vary based on the contract worked out between Spotify and labels. For these reasons, the term “pay per stream” can be misleading.
Several publications have calculated a rough estimate of how much a stream is worth on Spotify. The most up-to-date estimate on Spotify is around $0.003 and $0.005 per stream.
We use the total streams data provided by ChartMasters to find the top ten artists and their all-time Spotify streams. By multiplying the “lead streams” by an average 0.004 dollar per stream, we get the total earnings listed below. Lead streams does not include featured streams.
Please note, the amounts stated below are before labels, managers, etc. take their cut. Don’t forget, Spotify is just one source of revenue. The highest earning artists in the world have multiple sources of income from other stores, licensing deals, business ventures, live shows, merch sales, etc. These numbers are rough amounts the artists have generated on Spotify alone. To keep 100% of the revenue streaming services payout, check out RouteNote Premium!
Since last updating this list in May last year, there has been some movement in the top ten. Taylor Swift is still the queen of Spotify, with almost 100 million lead streams, putting her total earnings at over $387 million. This is ahead of the most-streamed male artist, Drake at 82 million streams and $331 million. Justin Bieber and Eminem have traded places. Post Malone has been knocked off the top ten with Kanye West taking number nine and a new entry at number ten, Billie Eilish.
- Total earnings: $205,109,278
- Lead streams: 51,277,319,567
- Total earnings: $174,482,873
- Lead streams: 43,620,718,257
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Do you not know how to read numbers! Taylor has 81 billion streams, not million!
I was trying to do the math on how spotify was paying her 4 dollars per steam. lol
Periphery should be number 1