Spotify Says 1,500 Artists Earned Over $1 Million in Royalties in 2025

Mar 11, 2026 7:46am PT Spotify Says More Than 1,500 Artists Earned Over $1 Million in Royalties Last Year By Jem Aswad Plus Icon Jem Aswad Executive Editor, Music jemaswad Latest Senator Amy Klobuchar on ‘Weak’ Live Nation-DOJ Settlement: ‘It’s Absolutely Disrespectful to Fans’ 2 days ago Wasserman Agency Rebrands as ‘The·Team’ 2 days ago Music Industry Moves: Lucy Dickins to Join CAA 2 days ago See All Antony Jones/Getty Images Spotify paid out a record $11 billion to the music industry in 2025, bringing the streaming giant’s 20-year total to nearly $70 billion. But in its latest Loud & Clear report, the company is focusing on the artists who generated that total. The report makes the following claims: In 2025, more than 13,800 artists generated at least $100,000 a year from Spotify alone — nearly 1,400 more than the previous year. Related Stories Matthew McConaughey Predicts to Timothée Chalamet That AI Actors Will Crash the Oscars: 'It's Damn Sure Going to Infiltrate Our Category' Timothée Chalamet Slammed as 'Vapid' and 'Shallow' on 'The View' After Dissing Opera and Ballet; Whoopi Goldberg Tells Him: 'Be Careful, Boy... He Is a Boy to Me' Moving up the scale, more than 1,500 artists generated over $1 million in royalties from Spotify alone. Popular on Variety And moving way up the scale, the 80 top artists each generate over $10 million annually from Spotify alone. Ten years ago, the very top artist on Spotify reached $10 million in annual royalties for the first time. In 2025, the 100,000th highest-earning artist generated more than $7,300 in royalties from Spotify alone. In 2015, the artist in that same position generated about $350. Despite those impressive numbers, the report arrives against a backdrop of musicians and particularly songwriters with legitimate issues over the low payments they receive from streaming, but in that context it’s important to bear in mind that Spotify — like most streaming services — pays rights-holders, usually a label and music publisher, which then distribute the money to musicians and songwriters, after taking their percentage. While the streaming economy leaves much to be desired in terms of compensating creators, the blame is not entirely on streaming services. On that note, the company says that 2025 marked the largest annual music publishing payout in Spotify’s history, stating that over the past two years, Spotify paid approximately $5 billion to the publishers and organizations representing songwriters. The company also pointed out some international breakthroughs. In 2025, artists from 75 different countries each generated over $500,000 in royalties on Spotify, up from 66 countries in 2024. In 2025, songs in 16 different languages reached Spotify’s Global Top 50, more than double the number in 2020. Among genres generating over $100 million annually on Spotify, the fastest-growing in 2025 were Brazilian Funk (+36%), K-Pop (+31%), Trap Latino (+29%), Urban Latino (+27%), and Reggaeton (+24%). Jump to Comments ‘DTF St. Louis’ Premieres With 2.5 Million Viewers in Three Days Kaley Cuoco Joins Ray Romano, Joshua Jackson in HBO Max Pilot ‘How to Survive Without Me’ CNN Staffers Fear Warner Bros.-Paramount Deal Will Hurt Their Journalism and Network’s Financial Health Netflix Shares Pop More Than 5% As Warner Deliberates Next Steps Warner Bros. Discovery Declares New Paramount Bid a ‘Superior Proposal’; Netflix Has Four Business Days to Match John Oliver Says Paramount Buying Warner Bros. Is ‘Not Great News’: ‘How the F— Do I Get Out of Here?’ JavaScript is required to load the comments. Loading comments...