Spotify paid out $11 billion in royalties to the music industry in 2025, the streaming platform said on Wednesday, $1 billion more than Spotify reported to have paid out a year prior.
The $11 billion payout brings Spotify’s all-time payments to the music industry to $70 billion, according to a post from Spotify’s head of music, Charlie Hellman, who added that half of last year’s $11 billion once again went to independent artists and labels, reflecting the indie music industry’s continued growth in the streaming era. Hellman called last year’s payout “the largest annual payment to music from any retailer in history.”
Hellman said in the post — available in full here — that Spotify’s 10 percent year-over-year growth outpaced other income sources by about 6 percent, though he didn’t specify what those other income sources were.
“That’s the real shift and extraordinary progress that these numbers represent,” Hellman said of Spotify’s royalty payouts, further sharing a stat that there are more artists making at least $100,000 on the platform today than during the height of the CD era decades ago. “Despite rampant misinformation about how streaming is working today, the reality is that this is an era full of more success stories and promise than at any point in history.”
For many years, Spotify has battled criticism from artists over low royalty rates from streaming, with musicians frustrated over what they’ve said are paltry sums for their streams. Last summer, Apple Music’s Oliver Schusser took a shot at Spotify and other streaming services that offer up music for free, arguing it devalues music as a product.
Today’s news on its own likely won’t change those critics’ minds, though the figures affirm that the streaming model has put billions of dollars into a music industry that was otherwise in a free fall due to rampant piracy before the streaming era had begun.
In the blog post, Hellman hinted at some initiatives for 2026, noting the proliferation of AI slop on streaming services.
“AI is being exploited by bad actors to flood streaming services with low-quality slop to game the system and attempt to divert royalties away from authentic artists,” Hellman said. “So we’re going to introduce changes to the systems for artist verification, song credits, and protecting artist identity. It’s critical to ensuring listeners and rightsholders can trust who made the music they’re hearing.”
Hellman also said Spotify would be adding “more context into the listening experience” in 2026, pointing toward features like the upcoming SongDNA, which will break down the collaborations and creators behind songs.
“As AI makes all kinds of content more abundant, human connection has become more valuable, not less,” Hellman said. The post stopped short of outright banning AI content on the platform, which the much smaller, indie-focused music service Bandcamp did earlier this month. Spotify said late last year that it had removed 75 million “spammy songs” from “bad actors” while announcing increased AI protections for artists.
Hellman also touted increased focus around “human editorial,” something that seems to seek to address criticism in the streaming era about purely algorithm-focused music discovery. Without citing specifics yet, Hellman said that this year Spotify would be introducing “new programs where editorial can unlock more sustained support for emerging artists that help turn early recognition into ongoing momentum.”
“You’ve built communities, taken risks, and kept going even when the path felt uncertain,” Hellman said. “It’s our job to make sure Spotify works as hard as you do, and keeps growing in ways that better support artists who are serious about building a career. Unprecedented competition alongside unprecedented opportunity defines today’s music industry. Our focus is ensuring that growth creates clear, reliable paths for artists to reach fans, and sustain careers.”
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