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Spotify is trumpeting big paydays for artists – but only a tiny fraction of them are actually thriving

The company’s latest Loud & Clear report – a relatively transparent look into a closed-off industry – shows just how skewed financial success is in music

There is much talk of “transparency” – perhaps the most duplicitous word in the music industry’s lexicon – but this year’s report feels very different, coming as it does alongside the publication of author Liz Pelly’s book Mood Machine, a studs-up assault on streaming economics in general and Spotify in particular. Duboff says 2024’s report is “particularly symbolic, because it’s exactly 10 years after the low point of the recorded music industry”, when downloads had failed to fill the void created by the collapse of the CD market and the rise of piracy. But given Spotify has been accused in the US, by the Mechanical Licensing Collective (MLC), of trying to reduce its payments to songwriters by reclassifying its premium subscriptions as “bundles” as they contain access to audiobooks, this claim will not be warmly welcomed by everyone.

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