Topic
Monetisation
Payout figures get quoted badly. These pieces use the platforms' own published data and the industry's own reports, with the year each figure covers stated plainly.
Payout figures get quoted badly. These pieces use the platforms' own published data and the industry's own reports, with the year each figure covers stated plainly.
AIM says UK indie music is an early-warning sign for the sector, citing chart falls, customs costs and AI risks; practical steps for indie artists and small teams.
Luminate counted 106,000 new recordings delivered to streaming services every day in 2025, and 88 per cent of everything on those services took fewer than 1,000 streams all year. Distribution is solved and costs about twenty euros. Being found is the entire job.
13,800Spotify's own Loud & Clear figures, published March 2026: nearly 1,400 more artists than the previous year, and more than 1,500 above a million dollars.
$31.7bnIFPI put 2025 revenues at $31.7 billion, up 6.4 per cent, with streaming at 69.6 per cent of the total and 837 million paid subscription accounts.
6 services · 10 minThe headline prices are nearly identical. The differences are in social and user-generated content fees, Content ID cuts, and what happens to your catalogue when you stop paying.
10–15% + feesSelling directly, and the eight days a year when the platform takes nothing.
MonetisationThe platform waives its revenue share for a midnight-to-midnight window eight times this year. Three of those days are still ahead: 2 October, 6 November and 4 December.
MonetisationMore than $11 billion to the industry, nearly $70 billion lifetime, and 13,800 artists above $100,000. All true, all Spotify's own numbers, and none of it describes what lands in an artist's account.