Spotify presents every year the report "Loud & Clear", which in detail goes through how the streaming service pays out money to artists and songwriters. In 2024, Spotify paid out 10 billion dollars to rights holders behind the music. And more and more goes to Swedes.
In 2024, Swedish artists generated 1.9 billion kronor from Spotify, an increase from 1.8 billion kronor the previous year. The international breakthrough is significant, 65 percent of royalty payments for streams come from outside Sweden, an increase of 5 percentage points.
More earn more
Spotify does not present an individual top list for artists. But according to the company's report, 530 Swedish artists generated revenues of over 500,000 kronor solely from the streaming service in 2024, an increase from 506 artists in 2023.
But the money does not go directly to the artists, but to music publishers and other rights holders who then distribute the money further after taking their share. So the number of those who in real terms earn more than 500,000 kronor is actually smaller. Is the figure not misleading?
It's a good question. The report shows that we pay out record sums and offer artists at all levels the opportunity to succeed. But we pay the money to those who have the music rights and then they pay the artists based on their individual agreements, says Bryan Johnson.
The Swedish company is the world's largest music streaming service with approximately 30 percent market share. Artists also have other revenue streams than from Spotify.
A question for the industry
But there has long been criticism of Spotify and other streaming services from artists who think they do not get paid enough for their music. Bryan Johnson believes that it is primarily a question for other actors in the music industry.
We pay out record amounts of money for music rights to the music industry, which should then pass it on to artists and songwriters, and if the money does not efficiently reach the artists and songwriters whose music is the core of what we do on our platform, then it is really something that needs to be discussed.
Since 2021, Spotify has presented the report "Loud & Clear" annually, to show how much money is channeled back to artists and songwriters.
This year's report shows that Spotify in 2024 paid out 1.9 billion kronor for music by Swedish artists – an increase from 1.8 billion kronor in 2023 – and almost a doubling compared to 2018. Approximately half of these went to independent artists and record labels.
530 Swedish artists generated revenues of over 500,000 kronor solely from Spotify, an increase from 506 artists in 2023.
65 percent of the total royalty payments came from streams outside Sweden, an increase from 60 percent in 2022.
40 percent of the Swedish artists who generated over 10 million kronor on Spotify were either female artists or bands with both men and women. Sweden thus places itself as one of the four top markets globally when it comes to female representation in this revenue category. Source: Spotify.
