How do artists and songwriters get paid?

We don’t pay artists or songwriters directly, we pay rights holders, who then pay you based on your agreement with them.

Here’s how it works: Spotify makes money from Premium subscriptions and advertising on the Free tier. About two-thirds of that money goes into the royalty pool.

We divide that pool based on streamshare. You get paid based on your percentage of total streams, not a fixed rate per stream since listeners don’t pay per stream. They pay a subscription for unlimited access.

To put that in real terms: In 2025, an artist who captured one in a million of all Spotify streams generated about $11,000.

For more info, we encourage you to check out the following videos: How the Money Flows, and How the Money Flows (Publishing Edition).