Useful Spotify statistics every music artist needs to know

Discover the latest Spotify statistics that can transform your music career. Learn essential tips that every artist must know to navigate the streaming landscape effectively.

by Bobby Owsinski of Music 3.0

There are over 100 music streaming platforms around the world, but only 19 that are considered “major.” That said, Spotify is the service that rules them all and there’s a lot of data to prove it. Here are some amazing Spotify statistics that illustrate just how important the platform is to the music industry.

Spotify has. . .

>>> 603 million users with 226 million premium subscribers across 184 regions as of December 2023. Europe accounts for 28% of Spotify’s monthly active listeners, while North America (USA + Canada) comes second with a 19% share and 361 million of Spotify’s monthly users are ad-supported.

>>>  33% share of the worldwide music streaming market.

>>> over 11 million artists and creators.

>>> over 100 million songs, 5+ million podcasts, and 350,000+ audiobooks in its catalog.

>>> paid $9 Billion to its artists in 2023. That’s approximately 62.8% of its annual revenues. The company has paid over $49 billion to the artists to date.

>>> 1,060 artists earned more than $1 Million in 2022. There were 57,000 that generated more than $10,000.

>>> 1.8 million songs uploaded on to the platform every month on average.

>>> an estimated stream value that ranges from $0.006 to as little as $0.00318 per stream. The payout differences depend upon where the streams come from. For instance, the premium pays more than the free tier, some country’s pay less, and the time of year your streams come from the advertising tier.

>>> a demographic that leans male at 56%, whereas females form 44% of the platform’s user base.

>>> 29% of Spotify’s global users belong to the 25 to 34 age group, while people aged between 18 to 24 make up the second biggest user group at 26%,

>>> an active user base where over 44% of users access Spotify every day.

The point is that, despite there being a lot of alternative platforms worldwide, you can’t afford not to be on Spotify. These days it’s easy to have your music available on all platforms thanks to the many digital music distributors.

The other thing to consider is that if you’re making money from Spotify then you’re probably making it from at least some of the other platforms as well. You know what the biggest one is though, and we have the Spotify statistics to prove it.

Bobby Owsinski is a producer/engineer, author, blogger, podcaster, and coach. He has authored 24 books on music production, music, the music business, music AI, and social media.