Spotify paid the music industry $9 billion in 2023

Apparently, passing 602 million monthly active users was not the only big stat Spotify wanted to share this week. Two days after a solid report to investors that sent its stock up 8%, Spotify announced it had paid more than $9 billion to musicians and the music industry last year, its highest payout ever.

$9 million represents 63% of the $14.3B total revenue Spotify reported in 2023. That percentage has fallen from around 70% in earlier years as the streamer diversifies its content to include podcasts and audiobooks.

The annual amount that Spotify pays the music industry has tripled in the last six years, totaling more than $48 billion since its founding.

The streamer said it will share more data in its annual Loud & Clear report in the coming weeks.

Underscoring Spotify’s importance to musicians and the industry, today’s $9B announcement comes at a moment when UMG is battling TikTok over payments and other streaming competitors are touting comparatively smaller numbers of their own.

MORE: Four big music takeaways from Spotify’s earnings call

Bruce Houghton is the Founder and Editor of Hypebot, a Senior Advisor at Bandsintown, President of the Skyline Artists Agency, and a Berklee College Of Music professor.