Spotify’s earnings shine a light for UK artists
Image credit: Hugo Sousa
Spotify have revealed their UK data showing how Europe’s top streaming service is serving UK artists and the music industry.
Spotify‘s Loud & Clear report revealed how they paid over $9 billion to the music industry last year. This amounted to an astonishing $48 billion that Spotify has paid out since its service was launched. Now, they’ve taken a more exclusive look at their impact within the UK in 2023.
Beginning with the big figures, UK artists generated over £750 million in royalties from Spotify in 2023. Looking at individual artists, more artists are earning significant figures from Spotify than ever before. They revealed that nearly 1,000 UK artists made over £100,000 last year from Spotify. That’s more than double the number of artists earning that much on Spotify in 2017.
In a fantastic sign of UK music’s influence, 75% of the royalties generated by UK artists in 2023 came from listeners outside the UK. They found the that more than 40% of the royalties generated by UK artists on Spotify in 2023 were on independent artists or labels. This is an incredible achievement for the independent sector, which has been empowered with the same level of visibility and reach as major label artists thanks to music streaming services.
Whilst impressive, that figure looks even better on the global scene. Spotify revealed that in 2023 independent artists and labels claimed over 50% of their worldwide revenues paid to the industry.
In terms of artists, Ed Sheeran still tops the list of British artists on Spotify. Sheeran racked up 6.35 billion streams in 2023 alone. Coldplay remain relevant in second place with 5.58 billion streams, whilst Harry Styles followed in third with 5.11 billion streams.