Five days ago, Spotify disputed a report that Apple Music pays artists more than double compared to Spotify’s average rates. In completely unrelated news, Spotify has published a blog post announcing record payouts to the music industry in 2024.

Maybe it’s a coincidence, and it took four weeks to crunch the numbers! Anyway, Spotify says it paid out $10 billion to the music industry last year, nearly matching global recorded music revenue from a decade ago:

In 2014, the music industry reached a low point when global recorded music revenues hit $13 billion. Spotify’s annual contribution at the time was around $1 billion, with around 15 million paying subscribers.

In 2024, Spotify alone paid out a record $10 billion to the music industry — totaling nearly $60 billion since our founding.

For a lot of people, those numbers might go in one ear and out the other. And they’d perhaps ask why Spotify keeps shouting about it.

The , written by Spotify Music Business VP David Kaefer, explains how Spotify generates revenue that funds the music industry.

The three legs of the stool include making Spotify a stickier service, converting ad-supported listeners to paid subscribers, and monetizing new markets with compelling local prices.

Another positive data point for Spotify? Providing a living for smaller artists:

Case in point, we estimate that, in 2014, around 10,000 artists generated at least $10,000 per year on Spotify. Today, well over 10,000 artists generate over $100,000 per year from Spotify alone. That’s a beautiful thing.

My takeaway is this: greater transparency in how artists—not just the music industry as a whole—are paid is welcome. Still, it’s clear that Spotify, , and other streaming services are responsible for creating great products that make paying more convenient than pirating.