MBW’s Stat Of The Week is a collection by which we spotlight a single information level that deserves the eye of the worldwide music business. Stat Of the Week is supported by Cinq Music Group, a technology-driven document label, distribution, and rights administration firm.
What number of artists are incomes sufficient to dwell from Spotify and different streaming companies?
It stays one the music business’s most contentious questions. In the present day (March 24), Spotify moved one step nearer to giving us the reply.
The streaming platform has up to date its Loud & Clear web site with a string of revelatory contemporary stats regarding what artists earned from its service in 2021.
These stats reveal that, over the course of final 12 months, Spotify paid out $7 billion (throughout publishing and recorded music) to music business rights-holders.
That determine was up by greater than double the $3.3 billion that Spotify says it paid out to the identical recipients in 2017, and up by round $2 billion on the “$5 billion-plus” that Spotify has beforehand claimed to have paid out in 2020.
Spotify claims: “Even adjusting for inflation, that $7 billion complete [paid in 2021] is the most important sum paid by one retailer to the music business in a single 12 months in historical past — together with any single retailer on the top of the CD or digital obtain period.”
Loud & Clear additionally allows us to drill down into what number of artists generated precisely how a lot in royalties (inclusive of each publishing and recorded music) from Spotify in 2021.
For instance, Spotify now says that 52,600 artists generated over $10,000 on its platform in 2021.
Spotify additionally notes that 15,140 of those 52,600 artists – round 28% – uploaded their very own music by way of the likes of TuneCore, CD Child and DistroKid.
Spotify additional segments what number of artists handed sure income thresholds in 2021 into varied teams. For instance, the Loud & Clear web site says that, of the 52,600 artists who generated greater than $10k final 12 months:
- 16,500 artists generated greater than $50k;
- 9,500 artists generated greater than $100k;
- 2,170 artists generated greater than $500k;
- and 1,040 artists generated greater than $1 million.
The 52,600 determine (for $10k+ artists) is up by 10,100 versus the equal stat from 2020. (Be aware: Spotify has restated/up to date a few of its 2020 stats beforehand printed on the unique Loud & Clear web site.)
As well as, the 52,600 determine is greater than double the dimensions of the variety of artists producing $10k or extra on Spotify in 2017 (23,400).
So what of the 16,500 artists producing over $50k on Spotify in 2021?
This 16,500 determine was up by 3,100 on the equal quantity from 2020 (13,400) and, once more, up by greater than double the determine from 2017 (7,400).
We have to be cautious of bewilderment Spotify’s newest stats, nonetheless, as they duplicate artists into a number of income teams; i.e. an artist producing over $100k a 12 months can also be counted as producing over $50k and $10k and so on.
As such, MBW has made a extra granular calculation: what number of artists fell into particular revenue-generation brackets on Spotify final 12 months, and the way did that evaluate to 2020?
From our calculations, we’ve discovered:
- 36,100 artists generated between $10k and $50k on Spotify final 12 months – up from 29,100 in 2020;
- 7,000 artists generated between $50k and $100k on Spotify final 12 months – up from 5,600 in 2020;
- 7,330 artists generated between $100k and $500k on Spotify final 12 months – up from 6,000 in 2020;
- 1,130 artists generated between $500k and $1 million on Spotify final 12 months – up from 940 in 2020;
- 1,040 artists generated over $1 million on Spotify final 12 months – up from 860 in 2020.
Spotify has moreover instructed us what number of artists generated over $2 million and $5 million in royalties (recorded music plus publishing, bear in mind) on its platform in 2021.
These magic numbers are 450 and 130, respectively.
There are numerous different attention-grabbing stats to be discovered on the up to date Loud & Clear web site in the present day, together with:
- Of the 52,600 artists who generated greater than $10,000 on Spotify in 2021, 34% dwell in nations exterior the IFPI’s prime ten music markets (Australia, Canada, China, Italy, France, Germany, Japan, South Korea, the U.Okay., and the U.S.).
- 718,000 songs have now surpassed 1,000,000 streams on Spotify, and 238,000 songs obtained 1,000,000 streams in 2021 alone. Over 230 songs have even reached a billion streams.
- Over 10% of artists (5,300) who generated greater than $10,000 on Spotify in 2021 launched their first tune ever within the final two years. In 2021, 350 of those newly-releasing artists generated $100,000 from Spotify.
- In 2021, Spotify says it accounted for greater than 20% of recorded music income (up from lower than 15% in 2017). The agency says: “For a tough estimate, you possibly can multiply the Spotify income by 4 to approximate how a lot artists generated from all recorded income sources in 2021.”
- Spotify provides: “Based mostly on our evaluation of RIAA information, the music business within the CD period favored superstars twice as a lot as it’s in the present day. On the peak of the CD period, 25% of US gross sales had been accounted for by the highest 50 artists. In 2021, solely 12% of US streams on Spotify are of the highest 50 artists — which means that income alternatives now attain far past the largest stars.”
One other intriguing new piece of data: Spotify has made an estimate of the variety of artists with music on its platform that it considers to be “skilled or professionally aspiring recording acts”.
The corporate notes that “of the eight million individuals who have distributed any songs to Spotify, 5.4 million of them have launched fewer than ten tracks all-time”.
It notes that many of those 5.4 million artists “are probably early of their profession, hobbyists, or is probably not leveraging streaming as a part of their profession path.”
Spotify estimates that there are round 200,000 “skilled or professionally aspiring recording acts” on its service globally in the present day.
The corporate causes: “There are 165,000 artists who’ve launched not less than ten songs all-time (which means they’ve a physique of labor to earn from) and common not less than 10,000 month-to-month listeners (which means they’ve been capable of entice an viewers). We additionally see this by way of our integrations with Songkick, Ticketmaster, and dozens of different dwell and digital ticketing companions: 199,000 artists had any gig, occasion, or digital occasion listed in some unspecified time in the future throughout 2019 (the final 12 months not impacted by pandemic cancellations), demonstrating industrial exercise exterior streaming.
“That information suggests a inhabitants between 165,000 and 199,000 artists, however to account for a margin of error in our methodology, we take into account 200,000 to be an affordable estimate — although after all, we acknowledge the problem in assuming any artist’s skilled intent simply from information.
“Based mostly on this estimate, you would calculate that greater than 1 / 4 {of professional} or professionally aspiring artists generated $10,000 in 2021 from Spotify alone (and certain over $40,000 throughout all recorded income sources).”
Cinq Music Group’s repertoire has gained Grammy awards, dozens of Gold and Platinum RIAA certifications, and quite a few No.1 chart positions on a wide range of Billboard charts. Its repertoire contains heavyweights reminiscent of Dangerous Bunny, Janet Jackson, Daddy Yankee, T.I., Sean Kingston, Anuel, and lots of extra.Music Enterprise Worldwide
