Spotify claims to provide musicians with a livelihood: “Over 25,000 European artists now earn more than €5,000.” The streaming giant reports new record payouts, with European artists generating almost €1.5 billion via streaming on Spotify in 2023, as shown by provider’s European Loud & Clear data report, which tracks royalty payments to artists from across the European Union for the first time. According to Spotify, this data is being shared to offer better insights into the current streaming economy in the region for everyone.
Spotify Loud & Clear: New Royalty Data Revealed
Spotify is currently the only streaming provider that publishes all of the year’s data on artist remuneration, offering transparency for all users of the service. Following up on the global edition of Loud & Clear published last March, this new report provides a closer look at streaming markets such as France, Italy, and Germany. And it follows the controversial statements on the cost of music creation from CEO Daniel Ek (we reported here).
It is particularly noteworthy that according to the service, more than 15,000 European artists generated over €10,000 in 2023, while more than 25,000 made over €5,000 (per year), “enabling artists to live off their art”. This is of course in addition to a musician’s other sources of income such as gigs, merchandising, sponsorships, and other sales and streaming platforms. It is also noted that European artists generated almost €1.5 billion in revenue last year, an increase of 16 percent compared to the previous year and more than triple the amount from 2017.
However, it must also be pointed out that streaming has all but replaced the revenue from CD, vinyl record, and download sales, which hardly plays a significant role for artists anymore.
Does Spotify help European artists make a living from their music?
Let’s continue with more numbers: Spotify says that 44 percent of all royalties generated in the EU in 2023 came from EU artists, the highest figure since the company began recording this data. Over half of all royalties generated by EU artists were generated by artists from countries where English is not the first language. European artists were discovered around 28 billion times by new listeners worldwide, and 50,000 EU artists were added to editorial playlists in 2023.
Federica Tremolada, Spotify’s General Manager of Europe, emphasises: “At Spotify, we believe artists across the globe deserve transparency about the economics of music streaming. That is why we are thrilled to introduce Spotify’s European Loud and Clear data for the first time, after our global and local reports in some markets across Europe. Showcasing how streaming empowers European artists to transcend geographical boundaries and build global fanbases is a key part of our mission.”
Record royalty payouts to EU artists
Tremolada adds: “Every year, Spotify has paid out more and more money in streaming royalties, resulting in record revenues and growth for rights holders on behalf of artists and songwriters – and in the last year alone, we paid out almost €1.5 billion to European artists, with more than 15,000 EU artists generated over €10,000 in revenue. We’re excited to see European artists continue to grow their revenue and visibility across the world.”
Of course, it’s important to remember that creating music is easier than ever, so there are tons of new releases every day. This means that the revenue is shared between a much higher number of artists and only the “big guys” are earning enough from streaming to make a living. I highly doubt that many of us make more than €5,000 per year from streaming (after label and distribution deductions). Or am I wrong?
What do you think of this report from Spotify? Let us know in a comment! We’d love to hear your feedback and whether you’re one of the lucky ones who can live off streaming income.
More about Spotify and Loud & Clear
Note: This article by Marcus Schmahl was originally published in German on gearnews.de.
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