Musicians and creators can make money on Spotify through streaming royalties, podcasting, and selling merch and tickets to live events.
Streaming now accounts for 82% of US recorded music revenue, according to the RIAA. Spotify is the largest audio streaming platform in the world, paying out more than $11 billion to the music industry last year.
This post covers the main ways to make money on Spotify. The strategies below apply to other streaming platforms, too.
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How Spotify pays artists
Spotify generates revenue through three main channels:
- Premium subscriptions
- Ad-supported free-tier listening
- Sponsored links (such as concert ticket sales through the app)
As of Q4 2025, the platform had 290 million premium subscribers. All revenue flows into a shared royalty pool. Spotify keeps roughly 30% of the pool to fund operations and platform reinvestment and the remaining 70% goes out as payouts to rights holders.
That 70% is divided by market share of streams. If a single song accounts for 1% of all streams in a given reporting period, it receives 1% of the royalty pool for that period, in a model called pro rata distribution. Royalty rates also vary by country, since subscription prices and ad revenue are different across markets.
Not all tracks participate in that pool. Since April 2024, a track must reach at least 1,000 streams in the previous 12 months to be included in the recorded music royalty calculation. A separate minimum unique listener requirement also applies to prevent artificial streaming from gaming the threshold.
Who gets paid depends on how you distribute your music:
- Independent artists. Distribute through aggregators like DistroKid, CD Baby, or TuneCore, which license songs to Spotify and pass royalties to artists after taking a commission.
- Label-signed artists. Receive royalties through their record label, which holds a direct licensing deal with Spotify.
- Songwriters and publishers. Collect separately through performing rights organizations (PROs) like ASCAP and BMI, and mechanical licensing bodies like the Mechanical Licensing Collective (MLC).
To receive payouts, artists need a payout account set up through their distributor, which is typically connected via Stripe or PayPal, along with valid tax identification information. Spotify for Artists is the dashboard artists use to track streams, revenue, and listener demographics.
How much do artists make on Spotify?
The per-stream payout range varies depending on where an artist is based and the royalty agreements they have in place, but most reports put it somewhere between 0.2¢ and 0.5¢ per stream. For example, artist L.Dre earned 0.2896¢ per stream, while musician Harry Seaton made 0.4776¢ per stream.
Based on this range, artists might earn:
| Monthly streams | Approximate earnings |
|---|---|
| 10,000 | $30–$50 |
| 100,000 | $300–$500 |
| 500,000 | $1,500–$2,500 |
| 1,000,000 | $3,000–$5,000 |
The Spotify Loud & Clear report offers a more detailed picture of how earnings scale. In 2025, more than 13,800 artists generated at least $100,000 per year from Spotify royalties alone, which is nearly 1,400 more artists than the year before. More than 1,500 artists crossed the $1 million threshold.
Spotify states it isn’t the only streaming platform artists use and estimates that the artists that fall into the $1 million bracket likely earned about three times as much when combining Spotify with other streaming services and revenue sources.
Live performance compounds streaming income. Artists who sold concert tickets through Spotify saw their total Spotify revenue grow by at least 10% when ticket sales were included, and Spotify helped artists generate more than $1.5 billion in gross ticket sales in 2025.
The strategies below cover additional income streams.
Ways to make money on Spotify
- Get on Spotify playlists
- Join the Spotify Partner Program
- Start a podcast or video podcast
- Sell merchandise through your profile
- Promote on social media
- Collaborate with other artists
Spotify monetization falls into three categories: streaming royalties (earned passively as people play your songs), creator programs (structured monetization through Spotify’s own tools), and ancillary revenue (merchandise, live events, and other income your Spotify presence supports).
Here are a few ways to monetize your Spotify account:
Get on Spotify playlists
An editorial playlist placement does two things: it puts your songs in front of new listeners, and it signals to Spotify’s algorithm that your music is worth recommending, which is how songs end up in Discover Weekly and Release Radar.
According to Spotify’s Loud & Clear data, artists added to Fresh Finds (Spotify’s editorial playlist for emerging independent acts) collectively more than doubled their royalties in the year after being added compared to the year before, which is a pattern that’s held for every annual cohort since at least 2020. More than one in 10 artists now generating more than $100,000 annually on Spotify were first playlisted on Fresh Finds.
To pitch to Spotify’s editorial team, go to Spotify for Artists and submit your songs at least seven days before their release. You’ll need to fill in genre, mood, and a description that helps the team decide where each song fits. For placements outside Spotify’s editorial program, services like PlaylistPush connect artists with independent curators who create playlists.
Join the Spotify Partner Program
The Spotify Partner Program is Spotify’s direct monetization program for creators, combining ad revenue and premium video revenue for eligible shows.
As of January 2026, eligibility requires:
- At least 1,000 engaged audience members on Spotify based on plays over the past 30 days
- 2,000 hours consumed in the same window
- At least three published episodes total
Creators who qualify can earn money through ad revenue from free-tier listeners and premium video revenue from paid subscribers in supported markets. The program is accessible through the Monetize tab on Spotify for Creators.
Video podcasts are one monetization format within the program. Spotify has expanded its video podcast features, and premium subscribers in supported markets can watch episodes uninterrupted by dynamic ads.
Since joining the Spotify Partner Program, several shows have seen significant audience growth. Your Mom’s House With Christina P. and Tom Segura and The Rest Is Politics: US both recorded weekly consumption up more than 45%, while Matt and Shane’s Secret Podcast saw weekly consumption rise 12% and total consumption time grow 30% from January to March.
Start a podcast or video podcast
Spotify paid out more than $100 million to podcast publishers and podcasters worldwide in the first quarter of 2025. Unlike music royalties, podcast income doesn’t depend on hitting a stream threshold first.
A show can start earning through host-read sponsorships and dynamic ad insertion early on, and once eligible for the Spotify Partner Program, creators can add premium video revenue on top of that. As an example, the show Two Hot Takes saw a 12% increase in weekly consumption after introducing video on Spotify.
Spotify for Creators is the platform artists use to publish, manage, and monetize both audio and video shows.
Shows hosted on other platforms don’t need to migrate. The Spotify Distribution API, which launched integrations with Acast, Audioboom, Libsyn, and others in early 2026, lets creators publish to Spotify and access the Spotify Partner Program monetization without changing their existing hosting setup.
Sell merchandise through your profile
Artists can connect a Shopify store directly to their Spotify artist profile, syncing their product catalog so people can browse and purchase without leaving the app.
The Shopify x Spotify integration gives artists access to Shopify’s commerce infrastructure for managing inventory, fulfillment, and sales across multiple channels.
“We started with music; the music came first,” says Quinton Nyce, music artist and co-founder of Snotty Nose Rez Kids. “As long as we made music that people liked, the merch would come after that. It kind of went hand in hand.”
Fan support links, available through Spotify’s fan support tools, let users make direct donations to artists they want to support too.
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With the Shopify Starter plan, your no-code store is ready in minutes. Start selling across Instagram, WhatsApp, TikTok, SMS, and watch your DMs turn into dollars.
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Promote on social media
Artists can link directly to Spotify tracks, playlists, and artist pages from Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube. Paid campaigns on those platforms let artists target audiences by interest and listening behavior, reaching people beyond their existing followers.
Spotify’s own Discovery Mode is a separate option. Artists opt eligible tracks into the tool via Spotify for Artists, which signals to Spotify’s algorithm that those tracks are a priority for recommendation in Radio and Autoplay contexts.
According to Spotify, artists see an average of more than 50% in saves, more than 44% in user playlist adds, and more than 37% in follows during the first month of a Discovery Mode campaign. The trade-off is a 30% commission on royalties generated through those placements while all other streams remain at the standard rate.
Collaborate with other artists
Collaboration puts new music in front of listeners already engaged with another artist’s catalog.
According to Spotify’s analysis of more than 40 major crossover collaborations, 75% of artists involved saw at least a 10% increase in overall Spotify streams across their catalogs in the six months after a collaboration was released, compared to the six months prior.
When Rema and Selena Gomez released “Calm Down,” the number of fans listening to both artists grew by more than 600% in the six months that followed. Cross-genre pairings consistently drive the biggest gains.
The formats vary: Featured guest spots on released tracks, co-hosted podcast episodes, joint playlists that both artists promote to their followings, and live events that draw from both fanbases.
Can you make money on Spotify without being an artist?
If you’re not an artist, you can try curating playlists and reviewing songs to earn supplemental income. Curators with at least 1,000 genuine followers on a Spotify playlist can sign up on platforms like PlaylistPush and get paid $1 to $15 to review songs from independent artists, with weekly payouts. Playlist size and listener engagement determine the rate.
You can also consider reviewing new music. Curators charge artists for written feedback through third-party platforms. It’s a time-for-money trade, and income is capped by how many tracks one person can realistically listen to and write about each week.
Make money on Spotify FAQ
Can you earn money from Spotify?
Yes. Artists earn royalties when their tracks are streamed, provided the track has reached at least 1,000 streams in the previous 12 months. Creators with podcasts or video shows can earn through the Spotify Partner Program. Artists can also earn through merchandise connected via Shopify, fan support links, and live events promoted through the platform.
How much does Spotify pay for 1,000 streams?
Payout per 1,000 streams falls between approximately $3 and $5, depending on the listener’s country, their account type (premium or ad-supported), and the rights agreements in place. These amounts reach rights holders before distributor or label fees are deducted.
How does the Spotify Partner Program work?
The Spotify Partner Program lets eligible podcast and video creators earn money directly through Spotify, combining ad revenue from free-tier listeners and premium video revenue from paid subscribers. Creators apply through the Monetize tab on Spotify for Creators once they meet the eligibility thresholds, which are currently 1,000 engaged listeners, 2,000 hours consumed in the past 30 days, and at least three published episodes.
How many streams are needed to make money on Spotify?
A track needs at least 1,000 streams in the previous 12 months to enter the royalty pool. That’s the eligibility threshold introduced in April 2024. Beyond that minimum, earnings scale with stream volume. At 100,000 streams per month, an artist can expect roughly $300 to $500 in royalties.
What does Spotify consider as a stream?
Spotify counts a playback as a stream after a listener has played a track for at least 30 seconds. Unique listener counts also factor into royalty eligibility to limit the impact of artificial streaming.
