As with other services, Spotify pays artists and music creators a certain amount for each play. If you want to start publishing your tracks or albums, you are probably interested in knowing what amount this company is offering. You can also read this guide if you are curious to know which streaming platform pays artists the most.
As we already did when talking about how much YouTube pays per 1000 views or the keys to make money on TikTokI reveal the Spotify figures to you. Is it profitable to publish music on this platform? Let’s see all the details.
How much does Spotify pay per playback in Spain?
Spotify is one of the most used streaming platforms in the world
If you wonder how much Spotify pays per playback in our countryI’m sorry to tell you that there is no official quote. That is, the company does not have a public table of amounts that indicates how much you are going to earn for your music. To prepare this guide I have had to consult various sources.
For example in Sympathy for the lawyeran agency specialized in music law, it is explained that the quote for reproduction In 2023 it was between 0.0033 and 0.0044 euros. That means that if a song reaches one million views, Spotify would be paying between 3,300 and 4,400 euros for it.
As the aforementioned agency comments, “These data are approximations to reality”. Because? For what I mentioned at the beginning of this section: “This is not open data or known to the public, it depends entirely on the reproduction quota and this is different for each artist.”.
Sound campaign It is a platform that promises to promote artists within Spotify. In the previous link, you have a calculator that allows you to know how much you would earn based on the playback. You can freely use it to obtain the approximate amount you could receive for your music, depending on the number of listeners.
As mentioned in the note, remember that “This estimate refers to the artist’s total amount before record labels, management and distributors collect their commission.”.
Finally, you have the information published by Luis Bassolsan artist who has produced music for television and other formats. He says that you can win up to $4,300 for every million viewsa figure that coincides with other cited sources.
Spotify vs. other platforms. Who pays more?
Although there is no official data and we must turn to sources that have experience in the world of streaming, there is a clear consensus: Spotify is the platform that pays artists the worst. To see it more clearly, we can go back to the Sympathy for de Lawyer blog, where they publish the following table:
| Artist 1 | Artist 2 | Artist 3 | |
| napster | — | 0.0190 | 0.0188 |
| Tidal | 0.013 | 0.0125 | 0.0125 |
| apple music | 0.01 | 0.0076 | 0.0073 |
| YouTube Music | 0.008 | — | 0.0080 |
| Deezer | 0.0064 | 0.0064 | 0.0067 |
| Amazon Music | 0.0040 | 0.0040 | 0.0040 |
| Spotify | 0.0033 | 0.0044 | 0.0043 |
The data that appears, corresponding to 2022, are the quotes of three artists and payments in dollars per reproduction on each platform. As you can see, Napster, Tidal and Apple Music are the platforms that musicians are paid better. In the queue we meet SpotifyFollowed by Amazon Music.
The debate between visibility and profits
Spotify is not the place where artists will get rich, but it is a good place to reach more listeners
Spotify, without a doubt, has revolutionized the music industry in the digital age. This platform has become the benchmark for streaming music. It has had very positive effects on the industry, reducing piracy and making music an accessible good for everyone.
Besides, provides unprecedented visibility to artists around the worldtaking their works everywhere, allowing emerging musicians to reach global audiences. Despite the criticism it has faced for its artist payment model, which is a very valuable showcase.
Spotify’s popularity translates into the ability of unknown artists to find listeners who would otherwise could not have easily reached. The platform offers tools like custom playlists, recommendation algorithms, and the ability to appear on global charts, meaning even independent artists can gain recognition and organic growth from their followers.
However, Spotify is not a place to make a lot of money. In fact, the main criticism of the company focuses on its payment model, which is considered insufficient for many artists. Most of the revenue comes from premium subscribers, while artists earn a very small fraction for each stream. And the matter is even darker if we take into account that the company has generated losses for years, since its launch.
Taking into account everything analyzed in this guide, it is clear that few artists are the ones who make generous profits with Spotify. And even for the most media-savvy, what this platform pays them will be a small percentage of their earnings. The rest must settle for another very different type of payment, that of the visibility provided by an application with almost half a million active users each month.
