What Spotify says it paid out in 2025, and what the figure does not tell you

Spotify publishes its payout data annually as Loud & Clear. The 2026 edition, covering 2025, is worth reading carefully rather than quoting from a headline.

The published figures

• More than $11 billion paid to the music industry in 2025, and nearly $70 billion since Spotify began.
• Payouts grew more than 10 per cent year on year.
• More than 13,800 artists generated at least $100,000 from Spotify alone, nearly 1,400 more than the year before.
• More than 1,500 artists 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 the previous year.
• Roughly half of 2025 royalties were generated by independent artists and labels, on Spotify's own characterisation.

The three things the figure is not

It is not what artists received. Spotify pays rights holders: labels, distributors and publishers. What reaches the artist depends entirely on the contract behind the recording.

It is not a per-stream rate. Spotify does not pay per stream in any fixed sense, and dividing one of these numbers by a stream count produces a figure that means nothing.

It is Spotify's account of Spotify. That does not make it wrong, and no other service publishes anything comparable, which is itself worth noting. It does mean the framing is chosen.

For an independent artist the most useful line is the 100,000th-place figure. About $7,300 a year, at the hundred-thousandth rank worldwide, is a clearer picture of the middle of the distribution than any average.