Spotify is a colossus in the world of music streaming. Out of 696 million users on the service, 276 million are paid users, paying monthly for a more convenient way of listening to music.
With so many paying listeners on the site, how fairly are the artists who have helped it grow into the monolith it is today compensated?
The figure often seen in the talks about how much Spotify pays artists is around 0.003 to 0.005 dollars per stream. While this can technically be true, the systems behind Spotify’s pay are more intricate. Spotify’s payouts work in a revenue pool system. This means that the sum the company collects from subscriptions, investors, etc., all pool into one area. This is then distributed to rights holders when the time comes for a payout.* These rights holders then pay artists based on contracts, negotiations, and stream counts.
*Rights holders include record labels, distributors, songwriters, and basically anyone who holds a financial stake in the sales of a given record.
Because of the revenue pool model, the amount of times you stream an artist does not necessarily mean that you are generating money for them with each listen, rather, giving them a higher percentage of the revenue pool—although not by much.
The first barrier for musicians to make a living from Spotify is being deemed eligible for monetization. To earn eligibility, a song would need at least 1,000 streams within 12 months and an unspecified number of unique listeners. According to a 2020 NPR article, an artist would have to achieve 650,000 monthly streams to reach the equivalent of a 15 dollar minimum wage. This becomes a problem: The algorithm of Spotify pushes songs that have the most appeal to a wide audience, leaving smaller artists in the dust.
Because most listeners consume music through streaming services, it is harder for musicians to financially support themselves now than in past decades. Especially during the pandemic, when bands and artists were not able to tour, they had to rely on music streams for income. Now, even when the pandemic is “over,” it is much harder and more expensive to tour than it was before — without income from streaming, many smaller artists end up working day jobs to save up to tour.
Instead of finding fair ways to help artists receive fair pay from the service, it seems Spotify has gone another way. The company is trying to gain control over all audio entertainment: Daniel Ek, former CEO of Spotify, said in 2020, “[We] continue to be focused on the billions of users that are listening to linear radio. The 20-year trend is that everything linear dies and on-demand wins.” The company would then pay over 100 million dollars for the rights of the “Joe Rogan Experience.” Additionally, Ek invested over 600 million dollars into Helsing, a company developing drones that use AI and navigational data for military use.
I’ll admit, coming up with solutions to such a systemic issue is a challenge. Spotify has a grip over the music industry, and if most artists are unable to negotiate for fair conditions, there is even less for me to do as a fan. I wish I had better answers to give, or lead the revolution over streaming services, but I am merely an individual with hopes against the corporate monolith. However, hope can still inspire new ideas.
A pretty simple solution is just going to shows and buying merch. One way to keep music alive is to go to the places where music is alive. Although it has been harder to tour since the outbreak of Covid-19, bands are still touring and putting on shows for fans. Ticket prices are split between bands, with the venues usually taking a cut. Even with the distribution from those sales going so many different ways, the cut bands make still outweighs how much can be earned from streaming. Merch tables are also fantastic for supporting musicians! Not only does the cash go directly to them, but also small artists who may have helped design or craft the items being sold.
What if you are too busy and aren’t able to make it to shows? Or what if the small band you want to throw all of your cash at seems to book every other city? There’s Bandcamp, a website launched in 2007 originally created as a way to support artists as music piracy was becoming more prevalent. As the years have passed since the website’s launch, more features have been added to help form community and support artists. Bandcamp allows users and fans to purchase songs and albums digitally, which they can then stream, though artists will sometimes allow users to play songs from the website without paying beforehand. Albums and songs on Bandcamp can either have a price set by the artists, or a “pay what you want” option, allowing fans to buy the music for as little as one dollar (sometimes even free!) to however much they want to spend for it. Artists can also have a merch tab on their Bandcamp webpage, allowing the online purchase of merchandise and CDs.
Bandcamp also does “Bandcamp Fridays,” started in 2020 while musicians were unable to tour. On the first Friday of every month, Bandcamp would waive the 10% fee they took from sales and let the entire purchase go to the artists. Bandcamp has still been putting on Bandcamp Fridays even as musicians have been able to go on tour again, though less frequently than every month.
The dates for Bandcamp Fridays for the rest of 2026 have been released: March 6, May 1, Aug. 7, Sept. 4, Oct. 2, Nov. 6, and Dec. 4! If you are tired of Spotify prioritizing funding right-wing conspiracy theorists and military tools over the musicians who keep the company afloat, I recommend buying some music or merch from musicians on one of the previously mentioned dates. Look out for show fliers, buy from musicians when able, and help artists stay afloat when multi-billion dollar companies refuse to.
Graphics: Aya Zejjari