The music industry is healthier now than it’s been in decades, and streaming is a big reason why. Think of Spotify as a radio station and record store combined, but without the limitations of either.
With radio, artists can reach lots of listeners. However, there’s limited space in a radio station’s rotation of songs, making it harder for artists to break through. And in some markets, artists are not compensated when their music is played.
Artists benefit from a high purchase price in record stores, but physical and digital sales generate revenue only at the moment of purchase, a one-time transaction from fans willing to buy a track or album. That means they don’t capture income from every fan who listens, and they don’t create ongoing revenue when fans return to a song months or years later. And again, there is the issue of limited space. Not all artists are able to have their CDs or vinyl on a shelf in a physical record store.
Streaming solves both problems. Your superfans can listen on repeat, while casual listeners discover your music for the first time, and every listen generates revenue. Instead of relying on a single purchase during an album’s initial release window, artists can earn recurring income for years as fans return to their music over time. Both types of listening generate revenue for you, from fans who pay for Spotify Premium, and from advertisers that fund Spotify’s Free tier. (We have more than 290M Premium subscribers, and more than 60% of first-time subscribers start out on the Free tier and then later upgrade.)
When Spotify launched in 2008, piracy had cut the global music industry nearly in half, from a $24B peak in 1999 down to $13B by 2014.
Since then, streaming has powered the resurgence of the music industry. Spotify’s all-time payouts to music rights holders now stand at nearly $70 billion.
Today, the industry has bounced back to $29.6B, well past that 1999 peak. And more artists are succeeding now than ever before. The royalty pool keeps growing, and so does the number of artists building sustainable careers from their music.
*All statements on this website attributable to IFPI represent Spotify’s interpretation of data, research opinion, or viewpoints published as part of the IFPI Global Music Report in March 2025 and have not been reviewed by IFPI. Each IFPI publication speaks as of its original publication date and not as of the date of this report (March 11, 2026).