Spotify paid nearly 1,500 artists $1 million in royalties for 2024

Spotify published a detailed report , Loud and Clear , which states that in 2024 the service paid nearly 1,500 artists more than $1 million in royalties.

Spotify says that over 80% of these artists did not have a single song in the global daily Top 50 chart. To reach the $1 million threshold, an artist needs to have approximately 4–5 million monthly listeners or 20–25 million streams per month.

"Spotify has helped level the playing field for artists at every stage of their careers," the report says. "Success in the streaming era doesn’t require a decade-spanning catalog nor a chart-topping hit."

Incidentally, this news comes about a month after the company reported a profitable fourth quarter, making 2024 the first full year of profitability for Spotify.

Spotify also reported that the number of artists earning over $10 million has increased by 600% since 2017 , reaching 70 in 2024 .

The company paid a record $10 billion in royalties to the music industry in 2024 – which, according to Spotify, is “more than any single retailer has ever paid in a year, and over 10x the contribution of the largest record store at the height of the CD era.”