Spotify just dropped its 2025 royalty numbers, and the headline figure is eye-popping: $11 billion paid to the music industry, up $1 billion year-over-year. But the streaming giant's announcement glosses over a critical detail - that money went to rightsholders, not artists. Acts signed to major labels typically see just 15% of those royalties hit their bank accounts, while Spotify keeps its 30% cut. The disclosure comes as the company teases new AI verification tools to combat what it calls "low-quality slop" flooding the platform.
Spotify just gave the music industry its annual report card, and the numbers tell two very different stories depending on where you sit in the value chain. The streaming giant announced today it paid out more than $11 billion to the music industry in 2025 - a $1 billion jump from 2024's $10 billion payout. According to the company, that represents roughly 30% of the entire recording industry's revenue.
But here's the catch that's fueling ongoing tensions between artists and the platform: that $11 billion didn't go straight to musicians. It went to what Spotify calls "rightsholders" - labels, distributors, publishers, and a constellation of middlemen who stand between the streaming service and actual artists. And the company admits it doesn't actually know how much eventually reaches the people making the music.
The economics are brutal for artists on major labels. According to reporting from The New York Times, it's not uncommon for acts signed to major labels to see as little as 15% of their streaming royalties. Independent labels offer much more , typically with artists or better. Which explains why is quick to point out that roughly half of those royalties went to independent artists and labels.
