Spotify has addressed concerns about artist royalties just days after it was revealed that the company’s stock had dropped over 40% in the last six months.
Spotify has addressed concerns about artist royalties just days after it was revealed that the company’s stock had dropped over 40 per cent in the last six months.
In an attempt to become more transparent with its userbase, Charlie Hellman, Global Head of Music at Spotify, has outlined just how much the behemoth streaming platform has paid artists in the last year.
In the statement, he claims that the company pays back around 70 per cent of the revenue they take in, and claims the company has helped foster an environment more profitable to artists than during the height of the CD-era.
“Since Spotify pays out two-thirds of all music revenue to the industry – almost 70 per cent of what we take in – as Spotify revenues grow, music payouts have grown as well,” he explained.
“What about the other third — the money Spotify keeps? That’s been our fuel to reinvest directly into the platform in ways that drive more people to pay for music streaming and continue to grow revenues for music.
“By doing all we can to innovate on behalf of the music industry, we’ve been able to deliver an unrivalled listening experience, helping connect artists with listeners who are most likely to care about their music,” he continued.
Back in 2014, singer and songwriter Taylor Swift temporarily removed her albums and singles from Spotify in protest of their low royalty payouts to artists, and others over the years have threatened to follow suit.
“Big, industry-wide numbers can feel abstract, but that growth is showing up in tangible ways,” Hellman explained. “For example, there are now more artists generating over $100k/year from Spotify alone than were getting stocked on record store shelves at the height of the CD era.
He continued: “That’s the real shift and extraordinary progress that these numbers represent. Despite rampant misinformation about how streaming is working today, the reality is that this is an era full of more success stories and promise than at any point in history. “
“Today, Spotify accounts for roughly 30 per cent of recorded music revenue,” he added. “Last year, our payouts grew by more than 10 per cent, while other industry income sources grew by closer to 4 per cent, making Spotify the primary driver of industry revenue growth in 2025.”
Meanwhile, it comes as users are looking to shift to other streaming services like Deezer, an online streaming platform, which has incorporated AI music taggers to analyse content and identify AI-generated elements.
As 2026 rolled in, after numerous price hikes, the company has become the most expensive music streaming platform when compared to its competitors like Apple Music, YouTube Music and Amazon Music.
