Spotify paid $10 billion to the music industry last year, with $4.5 billion to publishers across 2023-24. So why are songwriters still struggling?

Spotify paid the music industry $10bn (£7.7bn) in 2024, which the streaming service said was the highest annual payment from any single retailer in history. But the figures come as a heated debate continues about how much money artists and songwriters receive in royalties.

Nearly 1,500 artists generated more than $1 million in royalties from Spotify in 2024, the company said in its annual Loud and Clear Report. Spotify said more than 80% of the artists in that pool did not have a song reach the app's Global Daily Top 50 Chart.