How Much Does Spotify Pay for a Billion Streams in 2024

At the end of 2023, Snoop Dogg revealed how much he made when he hit a billion streams on Spotify. According to Snoop, it didn’t even reach $45,000. He says that having his music on those platforms doesn’t pay off.

Snoop Dogg isn’t the only artist to reach a billion streams on Spotify; according to data released in March 2024, over 600 songs have a billion streams. Of those, 117 are hip-hop tracks - which tracks with Hip-Hop being one of the most popular genres.

We’ve previously covered the breakdown of who gets paid what, which will be a factor in the total that Snoop received. Other rights holders, publishers, writers, and more will get cut. So, while Snoop got $45,000, that total for a billion streams is much higher.

So, what is a billion streams more likely to earn?

To confirm the total presented in our Spotify stream revenue calculator, according to research done by Ditto and released in October 2023, a billion streams are worth $4,370,000.

With some level of estimation and confidence, the total revenue for a billion streams on Spotify is $4,370,000.

Spotify’s domination in the music streaming market

Spotify holds 30% of the music streaming market share, according to MIDiA.

Here’s what that looks like:

Due to the massive share of the music streaming pie that Spotify has, it makes it almost essential for artists to release music on the platform. That said, Spotify has a solid reputation for being one of the lowest-paying streaming platforms.

What factors impact how much Spotify pays artists?

The music streaming industry used to hide the amount artists were paid. However, there has been significant pressure for more transparency in the last few years. Royalties aren’t cut and dry.

You’d be forgiven for thinking that artists get paid directly from Spotify and see every cent of their earnings. In reality, there are multiple impacting factors:

Copyright

Composition rights are those based on melodies, harmonies, and lyrics. These rights belong to the publisher and the songwriter(s).

Master rights are the rights of the record label, recording studio, and recording artist based on distribution and reproduction.

Each of the different rights and where they originated from (country) will yield different royalty payment amounts.

Royalties

• The Master Recording Royalties are paid to the record label, producers, and recording artists when the track is physically purchased, streamed, or downloaded.
• Recording Royalties are payments made to rights holders, paid to the artist through their distributor or record label.
• Publishing Royalties are payments made to songwriters and the composition's owner. They are also paid to collection societies, mechanical agencies, and publishers.

There are also Digital Performance Royalties, Mechanical Royalties, Public Performance Royalties, and Synchronization Royalties.

Region

Different regions ‘pay’ a different amount per stream. In Portugal, a stream might be worth $0.0018, while in the US (for the same song), it would be $0.0039.

Account type

Spotify has two subscription options: Free and Paid. Listeners with a paid account make more money and contribute more to artists' revenue.

Taking information from Spotify’s own royalties page, here is what they say:

" Contrary to what you might have heard, Spotify does not pay artist royalties according to a per-play or per-stream rate; the royalty payments that artists receive might vary according to differences in how their music is streamed or the agreements they have with labels or distributors."

Which artists have a billion streams on Spotify?

The fastest way to see who has a billion streams on Spotify is to check out the Official Billion Streams Playlist.

It’s updated as soon as a song hits 1 billion streams.

But, at the time of publication, here are the top ten billion streamed songs:

For those who want the data delivered right to their inbox, then SongsBrew is for you.

It doesn’t start and end with streaming

While artists earn a certain portion through streaming, they diversify their income streams. Assuming that any artist with a billion streams for any song potentially earns over $4 million. Let’s take a look at where else their revenue comes from.

Merch

Assume a T-shirt or a vinyl record is around $35. Using the base rate of $0.004 per stream, a single T-shirt is worth around 9000 streams. So a million streams is around 155 T-shirts or between 100 and 155 vinyl records.

But here are a couple of examples of artists' merch and their prices:

One of the artists who continually gets big streaming numbers is Drake, who easily holds his spot in the top streamed tracks daily. His merch ranges in price; you’ll be paying $25 for phone cases, but here are some of his more premium items.

Next up is The Weeknd, Abel Tesfaye has a range of merch, including the vinyl and CDs of his massive hit Blinding Lights. In general, his merch isn’t as costly as others out there, but with two tracks in the billion streams club and millions of streams per day, streams will make up a large part of his revenue.

Let's change genres a little bit and look at Ed Sheeran. According to Pollstar figures, for his Divide tour, he sold 4,850,482 tickets, a total of $432,398,856. The tour is said to have grossed a stunning $775 million. His best-selling items in the online merch store are physical copies of music.

The estimation is that artists earn more from merch, up to 85% of the sale price. However, all that will depend on the designs, distribution deals, and record labels. Around 20% of live concertgoers will buy merch - although that can vary wildly.

Artists and brand partnerships

Brand partnerships can be incredibly lucrative when the artists and the brand align well. Musicians and artists tend to align well with the brands they already have in their lifestyle.

Lizzo and Fabletics are two of the brand collaborations that made sense. After some time, she launched her own brand of sports gear called Yitty.

Tierra Whack has a notice style, meaning her accessories are coveted, so launching a collection with Banter, charms, earrings, and rings in her style was a match made in heaven.

Some much bigger collaborations include Cardi B and Reebok, or Beyonce - Ivy Park, and Adidas. And they all vary in how much the collab is worth.

Using Cardi B as an example, her Reebok deal was huge. When she mentioned Louboutins in her songs, their sales increased by 217%—and she didn’t see a penny of that increase. And she did it again with Balenciaga.

In November 2018, she sealed a deal with Reebok. Media Impact Value noted that a single post of Cardi in the Reeboks she designed would make around $1.7 million—a Tom Ford lipstick named after her sold out in minutes.

Other notable brand and artist collaborations are IKEA X Swedish House Mafia, Blondish and Bose, Justin Bieber, and Crocs.

Any prominent artist who collaborates with a brand will receive a portion of sales in exchange for their time, creative input, and any advertisements they appear in. The bigger the artist, the bigger the cut.

Artists collaborate with brands in other ways besides working in unison with designers to create something.

• Wearing their clothing or using their brands in music videos or social posts
• Mentioning them in lyrics or interviews
• Wearing the clothing on stage
• Mentioning the brand of designer at award shows

It has to make sense to the audience to make brand partnerships work.

In other cases, they don’t:

Ultimately, while big artists make millions through streaming, it isn’t the most reliable and well-paid way to make money. And almost no artists make money just from their music. Brand deals, merchandise, and writing for other artists keep the money flowing.

What does the future of music streaming look like?

While the number of music streaming service users will increase, according to data, the landscape will differ for artists.

For example, Spotify revealed that they would stop paying artists that don’t have enough streams. Anything under 1000 streams they class as taking money out of the pot for bigger artists.

Other streaming services like TIDAL, Deezer, and Apple Music are making more of an effort to pay artists more. Using the calculator above, you can see how much (roughly) each of the platforms pays.

We predicted some of the trends to watch in 2024, and we note that Better Artists Pay and Transparency is on the cards—but it’s likely to be a slow process.

A heavyweight new contender has entered the music streaming ring, combining its users' social nature with music. TikTok Music will likely pressure other platforms to integrate more social features.

TLDR; Key Points

A Billion streams on Spotify unlock a significant milestone for artists: While the per-stream payout might be debated (Snoop Dogg reported receiving $45,000 for a billion streams), reaching this level signifies undeniable global popularity. Over 600 songs have achieved this feat on Spotify, with Hip-Hop leading at 117 out of 600.

Artists are diversifying their revenue streams to win: Music streaming services like Spotify are a powerful tool for reaching a global audience and building a fanbase (Spotify boasts a 30% market share, according to MIDiA). But to win financially, artists need to have other income streams.

The music streaming landscape is shifting: There's a growing movement for fairer artist compensation and transparency in royalty payouts. Platforms like TIDAL and Apple Music are known for offering more to artists than Spotify. Additionally, with the recent arrival of TikTok Music, the market is poised for disruption, with new features potentially benefiting both artists and listeners.

The future of music creation is optimistic: The music industry constantly evolves, with new technologies and platforms emerging. This creates exciting opportunities for artists to connect with fans and build successful careers. The demand for fairer artist pay is gaining momentum, which could lead to a more sustainable future for music creation.

The lack of good pay for artists on Spotify is one of the main reasons that people leave and transfer their music to TIDAL or Apple Music. Sound like something for you? Spotify to Apple Music is our most popular music transfer.