Image credit: Freguesia de Estrela

Spotify’s record-breaking payments to the music industry show that music streaming has surpassed any other music retailer in history.

Spotify has transformed the global music industry. Their new report for 2024 reveals just to what extent Spotify bolsters the music industry, revealing a record payout last year to artists, labels, and distributors.

In 2024, Spotify paid out more than $10 billion to the music industry. That’s not just a new record for Spotify, it is the largest payout any music retailer has ever paid to the music industry in a year. Spotify reveal that last year’s payout is 10x higher than the largest record store paid out at the peak of the CD era.

The incredible payout represents major growth for the music streaming service, which has grown from $1 billion of payouts in 2014 to $10 billion in 10 years. In fact, in 2014 the global recorded music revenues sat at just $13 billion globally. Now, Spotify alone provides over 75% of that figure to the industry.

The rise of independent artists revenue

The music industry has recovered and is making significant revenues again globally. However, that does not simply mean that the superstar artists and major labels are making more money. Spotify has changed how listeners interact with music and in turn revolutionised the space for independent artists.

Spotify reveal: “There are more artists making more money on Spotify than ever before.” Using the CD era again, Spotify compares the limitations of a record stores shelves to the 12 million uploaders now freely available on Spotify.

Thanks to their global reach, unlimited platform, and services like RouteNote providing music distribution to artists, more artists than ever before are getting their music released and earning from it. Music streaming services have removed the barriers to release that physical distribution and major labels once posed.

This has allowed artists the world over to reach global audiences with a few clicks. Not only that, smaller artists are earning more and more as the revenues shift away from a small percentage of the most popular artists to spread more evenly amongst independent artists and subcultures.

Spotify reveal that the 100,000th most listened to artist on Spotify now earns over 10x what they would have in 2014. The 10,000th most listened to artist has also seen their royalties increase 4x. So, it is not just levelling the playing field for artists to get heard and make money, but those artists are earning more than before too.

To prove the power of the independent artist in an age where music is freely available and subcultures thrive: Spotify reveal that almost 1,500 artists generated more than $1m in royalties from their platform alone. Of those, 80% didn’t have a song reach the Spotify Global Daily Top 50 chart. Their success was built in a dedicated fanbase rather than a single big hit.

You can read the full published results of Spotify’s 2024 in their Loud & Clear report here.

How can artists get their music on Spotify

The opportunities for independent and smaller artists to release their music, get heard, and earn revenues are a large part of the success story of Spotify. Independent artists and labels now represent about 50% of the recorded streaming revenue.

Thankfully, all artists can join the movement to join the independent artists to find their audiences and success on music streaming services.

RouteNote offers free music distribution to all of the world’s most popular music streaming services and digital stores. Artists can create a free account and upload unlimited releases, keeping 85% of all the revenues they earn on their releases.

What’s more, artists can upgrade any individual release to Premium for a small upfront cost if they feel that their music is popular enough to keep 100% of the earnings it makes. At RouteNote, artists choose whichever path suits them best with every single music release.

RouteNote offers all artists:

Start your music distribution journey today for free at www.routenote.com