Spotify
The number of artists with payments in the millions hardly increased in 2022
The Spotify music service app. The streaming service announces numbers. photo
© Fabian Sommer/dpa
From 2020 to 2021 there was a jump of 180 musicians who generated at least one million dollars. In 2022, 1060 artists broke the mark, 20 more than the year before.
The number of artists whose music has generated at least $1 million in payouts on Spotify has grown only slightly over the past year. In 2022, 1,060 artists hit the mark, 20 more than the year before, according to calculations by the music streaming market leader published on Friday.
From 2020 to 2021 there was a jump of 180 musicians and bands in this squad. Spotify itself highlights an increase of 130 percent compared to 2017.
There was even less movement among the top earners: the number of artists whose recordings and publications led to license payments of at least ten million dollars stagnated at 40. In the two previous years it had grown by ten each. At the five million dollar mark, there were also unchanged 130 artists in 2022 (2020: 100).
Spotify emphasizes that the license payments go to rights holders such as music companies and the streaming service has no influence on how they are distributed afterwards. Spotify gives almost 70 percent of the revenue from subscription fees and advertising to the music industry. If the proceeds increase, the payments also increase. As a benchmark, Spotify estimates that, on average, artists generate about a quarter of their revenue from the market leader.
The music industry’s most important source of income
Streaming has become the most important source of income in the music industry in recent years and also ensures constant growth in sales. Especially at the beginning of the streaming era, some popular musicians had criticized that they only earned relatively small amounts even with millions of views on online services. Spotify points out that in the CD age, most of the revenue flowed in the first week after the release. There are now almost 3,000 “music legends” in which 80 percent of the streams are songs that are more than five years old.
Spotify estimates that there are around 200,000 professional and aspiring musicians on the platform. License payments of at least $50,000 would have generated 17,800 of them last year.
Spotify is considered the number one in music streaming. The service, which originated in Sweden, recently had a total of 515 million users, of which 210 million were paying subscription customers. Last year, the company generated total sales of 11.73 billion euros.