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).