Artists earning over $5,000 on Spotify have grown by 205% since 2017

Key takeways

  • The number of artists earning over $5,000 in royalties from Spotify has risen from 36,400 in 2017 to 110,500 in 2024, a 205% increase.
  • The growth trend accelerated significantly after 2020, crossing 80,000 artists by 2021.
  • Between 2017 and 2019, the growth rate was slower, rising from 36,400 to 53,700 artists in two years.
  • The most significant jumps happened between 2019-2021, as numbers surged from 53,700 to 81,700 artists.
  • The consistent rise suggests increased monetisation opportunities for independent and mainstream artists on Spotify.

The number of artists earning over $5,000 in royalties from Spotify has increased from 36,400 in 2017 to 110,500 in 2024, marking a 205% rise. While early years showed gradual growth, the post-2020 period saw rapid acceleration, with numbers jumping from 53,700 in 2019 to 81,700 in 2021.

The upward trend has continued, with 103,400 artists in 2023 and further growth in 2024. This suggests that Spotify is providing expanding monetisation opportunities for artists, likely driven by a mix of platform growth, streaming revenue improvements, and artist engagement.

Source:

Spotify

Period:

2017-2024
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Top 10 Nigerian songs on Spotify rack up 316M+ streams in May 2025, led by ‘Baby (Is it a crime)’ at 53.4M streams
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Spotify artiste earnings in 2023: Distribution across income tiers
Spotify paid out more than $9 billion in music royalties in 2023. Artistes who received earnings ranged from 259,700 earning at least $1,000 to just 60 earning $10 million or more.

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Since 2014, 64 AFRIMA awards have been awarded to Nigerian artistes, including collaborations. Nigerians got awards from seven categories, the most by any country, at AFRIMA 2021. Following the just-concluded awards, here are the top 20 countries by number of awardees since 2014.

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