As part of its PR fightback to show the value it brings to the music industry, Spotify has come out and told us all it paid music rights holders more money than ever last year, to the tune of more than £5.3 billion ($7 billion).
Announcing all the good it does via its Loud and Clear website, which it set up last year as a means to be more transparent over streaming royalties, the world’s largest streaming service said it paid artists more than double what it paid them in 2017.
Since it was founded in 2006, Spotify says it has now paid rights holders a total of £22.7 billion ($30 billion), meaning last year’s fee represents a sizable chunk of the company’s total offering to the industry. The message – or at least the one the company hopes to portray – being that the money given to artists is increasing.
“Even adjusting for inflation,” their site has made a point of saying, “that $7 billion total is the largest sum paid by one retailer to the music industry in one year in history — including any single retailer at the height of the CD or digital download era.”
Other stats also portray the platform in a positive light. Last year, 1,040 artists are reported to have generated more than $1 million solely through Spotify; 450 generated more than $2 million (an increase of 110% in five years); 130 artists generated over $5 million (up 160% in that period).
Yet for many this will be more rose-tainted than simply rosy. For one thing, it doesn’t account for the money apportioned to the labels, management and other parties receive their cut.
What’s more those larger sums will of course be given to the best-performing artists; the likes of Ed Sheeran, BTS, Olivia Rodrigo (whose hit ‘drivers license’ was the most-streamed last year). Sure, I’m all for free enterprise – the best, most successful artists should be paid the most.
But the bottom line is, artists are paid between just £0.002 and £0.004 per stream. For anyone starting out, that’s a pittance. One monopolistic streaming service is engendering a monopolistic system.
Spotify’s announcement comes just days after the IFPI revealed that the global music market grew by a remarkable 18.5% between 2020 and last year, raking in a total of £19.5 billion. As the cake gets bigger, questions will now be asked as to how equitable the slices will be.
Expect more self-released, self-congratulatory announcements from Spotify.
