Think about the concerts you attended last year. Now compare that with how many times you listened to the artists you saw live on Spotify. They seem similar, right? That's what the data released by the music streaming platform reveals about the distribution of royalties to artists in 2024.
According to the report Loud & Clear, where Spotify provides some basic data on this distribution, the streaming operator distributed over 10 billion dollars in royalties in 2024. 15% is in the hands of 1,500 artists who have generated over a million dollars with their music, largely thanks to their live shows.
Because, although the company does not break down complete market data, it does show that 80% of the artists who surpassed the million-dollar mark, around 1,200, did not have any songs included in the Global Top 50 throughout the year. In other words, the streams were not enough to place those songs among the most consumed on the platform. However, 80% of these same artists were on tour or had at least one concert in the last 12 months.
This reinforces the idea that the current music scene is based on live events. Concerts have become, in many cases, large-scale shows with tickets selling out within minutes of going on sale and the main source of income for both artists and record labels. It is no longer as crucial for a song to make it to the charts, at least on platforms, as it is for performances to help artists build a fan base that continues to listen to their music even if it's not new.
In fact, the artist with the most streams on Spotify is Bruno Mars, who has not released a solo album in nine years, but has been performing concerts across the United States in recent months. He has seven concerts scheduled in Las Vegas alone next May. The Hawaiian artist's monthly listeners exceed 150 million, the highest number for any artist on the platform.
According to Spotify's data, artists approaching a million dollars in royalties usually have between four and five million monthly listeners or accumulate between 20 and 25 million streams in the same period. In the Spanish music scene, Rosalía, Aitana, or Quevedo far exceed those figures, as do pop classics like La Oreja de Van Gogh or Alejandro Sanz. However, Estopa falls within that range of streams.
Spotify's total royalty payment in 2024 amounted to 10 billion dollars to artists worldwide, a new record set by the platform that brings the total payment since its inception to 60 billion dollars. Additionally, the platform made the largest payment among its competitors, as it also has the highest number of subscribers.