The metadata available to Spotify and used to calculate this specific figure is different from 2021 to 2022, so it’s not an apples-to-apples comparison. The reason it’s different is because Spotify doesn’t always receive complete metadata from licensors on whether an artist uses an artist distributor. So, we’ve only included artists where we actively receive this data point. And when an artist distributor is acquired or makes changes to their operation, Spotify may lose access to the number of artists self-distributing through that company.
Based on the current set of artist distributors that Spotify receives complete metadata from, the number of self-distributing artists who generated $10,000+ from Spotify alone increased from 2021 to 2022. In 2022, 14,700+ artists generated $10,000+ on Spotify, which is a 200% increase from 2017.