
Of the eight million people who have uploaded any music to Spotify, 5.4 million have published fewer than 10 songs all time - indicating that they may be very early in their journey, approaching music as a hobby, or not leveraging streaming as part of their career path. We estimate that there are around 200,000 professional or professionally aspiring recording acts globally. How do the numbers of artists at different revenue levels compare to the total number of artists on Spotify? **Spotify’s % of recorded music revenue calculated based on IFPI’s 2022 Global Music Report. *$30 billion and $7 billion include both recording and publishing royalties. In 2021, Spotify accounted for more than 20% of recorded music revenue (up from less than 15% in 2017).** For a rough estimate, you can multiply the Spotify revenue by four to approximate how much artists generated from all recorded revenue sources in 2021.
There are also physical sales, touring, merch, sync, or other sources. Spotify is one of many music streaming services that generate revenue for the music industry, and streaming only makes up a portion of all industry revenues.
These figures only represent a part of the picture. To put those numbers in context, click a dollar amount below to see how many artists globally generated at least that amount - across recording and publishing for their catalog - for each of the past five years on Spotify. As of 2021, Spotify has paid over $30 billion in royalties to the music industry - including over $7 billion in 2021 alone (more than double the amount paid in 2017).*