Spotify paid out a record £7.7bn in royalties in 2024

Spotify paid the euphony manufacture $10bn (£7.7bn) successful 2024, which the streaming work said was the highest yearly outgo from immoderate azygous retailer successful history.

But the figures travel arsenic a heated statement continues astir however overmuch wealth artists and songwriters person successful royalties.

Earlier this year, respective Grammy-nominated songwriters boycotted an awards event hosted by Spotify successful a enactment astir their streaming earnings.

As the caller figures were published, a spokesperson for Spotify said the work for distributing the wealth it pays laic with grounds labels and publishers.

The institution said it pays royalties to rights holders, adding that it does not person "visibility" connected wherever the wealth yet goes due to the fact that net are based connected artists' idiosyncratic contracts with their labels.

A spokesperson said: "Spotify does not wage artists oregon songwriters directly. We wage rights-holders, these are typically grounds labels, euphony publishers, postulation societies.

"These rights-holders past wage artists and songwriters based connected their idiosyncratic agreements."

The magnitude of wealth earned by artists volition vary, but a committee of MPs heard successful 2021 that the performer's stock of royalties is often astir 16%.

That would mean an creator whose euphony generated £100,000 connected Spotify mightiness lone person £16,000 successful royalty payments, earlier tax.

However, Spotify is not the lone streaming work to make gross for artists, and galore popular stars marque much wealth from different income streams specified arsenic unrecorded tours.

Spotify said much than two-thirds of each euphony gross goes "straight to the signaling and publishing rights-holders", and added that, similar different streamers, Spotify does not wage connected a per-stream basis.

The yearly figures were published successful Spotify's Loud and Clear study - portion of the company's purpose to supply transparency connected however it pays the euphony industry.

The magnitude Spotify paid this twelvemonth was an summation connected the much than $9bn (£7bn) it handed implicit successful 2023.

The study highlighted that the fig of artists generating yearly royalties betwixt $1,000 (£770) and $10m had tripled since 2017.

Taylor Swift was named Spotify's apical creator globally with much than 26 cardinal streams, successful the twelvemonth she released her double-length medium The Tortured Poets Department: The Anthology.

Swift herself was portion of the statement astir streaming royalties successful 2014, erstwhile she removed her euphony from Spotify arsenic portion of a boycott, yet re-joining the level successful 2017.

More caller creator boycotts person mostly been prompted by different factors, specified arsenic Neil Young and Joni Mitchell removing their euphony implicit the streamer's employment of podcast big Joe Rogan. Both artists returned to the level past year.

But dissatisfaction implicit streaming royalties continues.

A large-scale survey of musicians successful Europe carried retired past twelvemonth recovered that astir 70% were unhappy with the magnitude they were paid successful streaming revenue.