this post was submitted on 13 Apr 2026
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The artists are getting a tiny fraction of that 30¢ a day. It's almost more ethical to pirate the music and buy their merch.
they get 70% of it, 30% goes to spotify
same as steam store, apple store etc
I’m not sure what the percentage is that they claim, but it’s far less. I check weekly on mine, and will get fractions of a penny for plays.
On the flipside, Apple Music actually seems to adhere to their percentage.
Presumably because you are getting 70% of a tiny amount
It’s a bit complicated really. They distribute money all over the place, and then the artist gets paid.
It’s kind of the “industry standard,” which sucks, but Spotify pays out less than industry standard. I could go on a rant about how they suffocate indie artists to ensure major labels get their share, but I’ll spare you lol.
Do people who pay for spotify listen to so much that their £5 a month (or what the sub is) gets shared so widely that each artist gets almost nothing?
Lots of artists make millions, it's just that music is so easy to make these days that there is more artists and songs than ever, more music gets released in a day than in the entire year 1985, so you need to be somewhat vaguely popular to make decent money, you can't just make a few songs and expect to live off the royalties, there's 12 year olds releasing music these days
That's so bad
Why is it bad that more people can release music?
I would be curious as to how the income per view compare to 1985
So basically, it’s like this…
Spotify gets their subscription money and ad fees, keeps 30%, then the remaining 70% gets split between all labels, songwriters, publishers, etc., and smaller artists (no label, self-release) get a percentage of your plays in your “market.”
So you end up getting fractions of a penny ($0.004) per play.
Which would suggest over 1000 plays for that money to be shared across. Presumably people paying are heavy users so that could be pretty easy to get over a month. Especially with shared accounts.
So you are getting your "fair" share of that 70%. It's just being shared across so many different things.
I'm not here to explain how spotify payouts work, you need to actually look that up for yourself
I know how it works. Been in this industry a while. I wasn’t expecting you explain — I just responded.
How long have you been in the industry loaf
Started in 1999 (local label, then Roadrunner), went solo (three labels, biggest I won’t mention), quit in 2014.
Started again in 2017, been doing it ever since as a hobby. Touring is incredibly expensive now. The only real way to break even is by selling advance tickets (for venue assurance), selling merch, and hoping people will by physical media.
In Europe, touring is harder because of venues taxing merch in my experience. Transportation is a bit cheaper, but still a grind, and you’re lucky to break even.
Spotify and other streaming services are a blessing and a curse: the biggest labels can push spins, and services get paid from that + ad revenue. Indie artists get pushed downward, unless they’re playlisted a lot.
Eyekaytee can you make me understand
it's complicated, it's based on what plan the person listening to you is on (people on the free ad supported plan pay the least, those on premium the most), what country you're in (poorer countries payout less), what % of total streams you're getting, what your label has negotiated with you, etcetc
https://dittomusic.com/en/blog/how-much-does-spotify-pay-per-stream
Getting rid of the ad supported plan would raise the average payouts quite a bit but Spotify has argued it is better to keep the plan and have people only pay for a little bit than return to the old days of music piracy where artists were getting nothing and had resorted to the RIAA suing people
Even if that would be true, steam offers a lot for devs and players. Spotify barely provides anything.
They're a public company, feel free to look up their financial reports
Charlie Hellmann
Note the word roughly
holy shit 30%? fark me that's huge!
What was your point though?