The amount of royalties generated by European Union artists on Spotify has tripled in the past six years, and listeners’ tastes are becoming increasingly local.
So says Spotify’s inaugural European Union-focuded Loud & Clear report, which for the first time breaks down Spotify listener and royalty data specifically for the European Union.
The report found that, in 2023, European Union artists generated almost EUR €1.5 billion (USD $1.62 billion at the average exchange rate in 2023) in royalties on Spotify’s platform, a 16% YoY increase, and triple the number six years earlier, in 2017.
The report also found that listeners’ tastes are becoming increasingly local, with 44% of the royalties generated in the EU going to EU artists. Spotify says that’s the highest percentage since it started tracking this data in 2017.
This squares with what others have observed. In a column for MBW earlier this year, Will Page (a former chief economist for Spotify) and Chris Riva Dalla documented the growing popularity of local music in many markets, particularly in Europe – a trend that they’ve dubbed “glocalization,” i.e. the increasing popularity of local music in an increasingly globalized music market.
Using data from Luminate, they found that local artists garnered upwards of 80% of the top 10 streams in Germany, France and Italy in 2023, while local artists accounted for more than half of the top 10 streams in Sweden and Poland.
Spotify’s European report also found that more than 15,000 European artists generated at least €10,000 ($10,800) on Spotify in 2023, while more than 25,000 artists generated at least €5,000 ($5,400).
Globally, European artists were discovered by new listeners some 28 billion times during the year, and 50,000 EU artists were added to editorial playlists in 2023.
Spotify notes that it’s “the only streaming provider to share data on artist remuneration”.
“At Spotify, we believe artists across the globe deserve transparency about the economics of music streaming. That is why we are thrilled to introduce Spotify’s European Loud and Clear data for the first time, after our global and local reports in some markets across Europe,” Spotify’s General Manager of Europe, Federica Tremolada, said in a statement.
“Showcasing how streaming empowers European artists to transcend geographical boundaries and build global fanbases is a key part of our mission.”
The latest data follows the global Loud & Clear report that Spotify released in February.
That report said the music streaming service had paid out $9 billion last year to recipients across record companies and music publishers, as well as independent distributors, performance rights organizations, and collecting societies.
That number “nearly tripled in the past six years,” Spotify said.
Given that Spotify had generated €13.247 billion ($14.336 billion) in revenue in 2023, that indicates the company paid out approximately 62.8% of its revenue to the music industry last year.
Spotify also released country-specific data on several European countries, and some outside of Europe as well including Brazil and Canada. Below, we list the highlights from those reports.
(For reports on the UK, Sweden, Denmark and Italy, click here.)
Germany
More than 1,000 German artists generated €50,000 or more on Spotify in 2023, quadruple the number of artists who achieved that in 2017.
Royalties earned by German artists exceeded €409 million ($442.7 million) in 2023, four times that earned in 2017.
German artists accounted for 73% of the titles featured in the German daily top 50 in 2023.
France
Spotify’s report on France found that more than 65% of the revenue generated by French artists on Spotify came from independent artists or labels.
The report also found that 71% of artists appearing in the daily top 50 in France in 2023 were French. More than half of the income generated by French artists came from outside France, and French artists were discovered by new listeners 4.8 billion times worldwide during the year.
Canada
Royalties generated by Canadian artists on Spotify reached CA $435 million ($322.25 million) in 2023, an increase of 15% YoY, and outstripping the country’s music industry revenue growth of 12%, Spotify said.
Canadian artists were discovered by new listeners some 3.8 billion times globally during the year, and 92% of all royalties generated by Canadian artists came from listeners outside Canada.
Brazil
More than 70% of revenues generated by Brazilian artists on Spotify in 2023 came from indie artists or labels, and the revenue generated by Brazilian artists has quadrupled since 2018.
In 2023, the number of artists that generated 100,000 Brazilian real ($20,023) or more was quadruple the number of artists who generated that amount in 2018.
Brazilian artists were discovered globally by Spotify users 10 billion times in 2023.
All exchange rates to the USD cited in this story were based on the average exchange rate for 2023.Music Business Worldwide