What Spotify publishes about payouts
The Loud & Clear figures, and the three things they do not mean.
From Spotify's 2026 Loud & Clear release, covering 2025: more than $11 billion paid to the music industry in the year and nearly $70 billion since launch. Payouts grew more than 10% year on year.
By artist: more than 13,800 generated at least $100,000; more than 1,500 generated over $1 million; around 80 cleared $10 million. The 100,000th highest-earning artist generated about $7,300, against roughly $350 in 2015. Artists in 75 countries generated over $500,000, up from 66.
Three things these numbers are not
Not what artists received. Spotify pays rights holders. What reaches the artist depends on the contract behind the recording.
Not a per-stream rate. Dividing any of these by a stream count produces a meaningless figure.
Not independent. This is Spotify's account of Spotify. No other service publishes anything comparable, which is itself worth noting, but the framing is chosen.
A figure here out of date? Send us the current source and we will update the page and date the change.
