As reported by Music Business Worldwide just 13,400 artists generated over $50,000 each in royalty payouts (records plus publishing) from Spotify in 2020.
That 13,400 figure – revealed on Spotify’s new Loud & Clear website – was nearly double the equivalent number seen in 2017.
If you extrapolate along the same growth trajectory, we can likely expect to see around 25,000 artists generating $50k annually from Spotify by 2023… and nearly 50,000 artists hitting the milestone in five years’ time (2026).
This means out of over a million artists sharing their music on Spotify, just 13,400 of them will be generating $50,000 in royalties or more.
Not the most promising statistics for artists battling to maintain their creative careers.