“Biggest contributor to global music revenue”: Spotify reports a record $11 billion in royalty payments last yearSpotify says it paid out more than $11 billion to the music industry in 2025 – a record annual total that the company positions as evidence of streaming’s growing role in the business.
In a note published on the Spotify for Artists blog, the platform says its royalty payments rose by more than 10% year-on-year – a whopping $1 billion more than it paid out in 2024. According to Spotify, this marks the largest annual payment to music rightsholders from any retailer in history.
The streaming platform also says independent artists and labels accounted for half of all royalties distributed in 2025 – a figure it cites as evidence of a more accessible music economy.

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Spotify now represents roughly 30% of total recorded music revenue, and claims its payout growth is outpacing the rest of the industry. While Spotify royalties rose by more than 10%, the company says other revenue sources across the music industry grew by closer to 4%, “making Spotify the primary driver of industry revenue growth in 2025”.
Among the headline figures is Spotify’s claim that more artists now earn over $100,000 per year on the platform alone than there were artists stocked in record store shelves “at the height of the CD boom”. The comparison underscores how streaming has shifted the scale and structure of artist earnings, even as debates continue around how that revenue is distributed.
Spotify has long faced criticisms from artists and industry bodies over low per-stream payouts and the growing gap between superstar earnings and the long tail of creators. These concerns have sharpened with recent changes to the platform’s royalty model. In 2024, Spotify introduced minimum stream thresholds for royalty eligibility, a move that effectively demonetises tracks with fewer than 1,000 streams.
Elsewhere, Spotify attributes wider industry growth to a combination of rising subscriber numbers and recent price increases. It notes that roughly two-thirds of its revenue is paid out to rightsholders, with the remaining share reinvested into platform development, discovery tools and recommendation systems aimed at attracting and retaining paying listeners.
Looking ahead, Spotify says 2026 will bring new measures to tackle fraud and platform abuse. The company acknowledges that AI is increasingly being used by bad actors to “flood streaming services with low-quality slop”, and says it is working on stronger systems for artist verification, song credit integrity and identity protection.
Editorial curation is also set to take on a more prominent role. While algorithmic discovery remains central to the platform, Spotify says it plans to expand the role of human-led playlists and programming, describing them as crucial cultural touchpoints in an era of highly individualised, algorithm-driven listening.
“In 2026, you’ll see us create new programs where editorial can unlock more sustained support for emerging artists that help turn early recognition into ongoing momentum. And we’ll bring more of the human voice behind that curation into the listening experience,” says Spotify.
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