Spotify has published its latest Loud & Clear report on the economics of music streaming.
The streaming giant has already published some of its headlines for the 2025 data – including the $11 billion payout to the music industry (including artists, songwriters, labels, publishers and other rights-holders).
Spotify also revealed the results in key markets including the UK.
The latest findings include the rise of music in different languages – as English language music declines. In 2025, songs in 16 different languages reached Spotify’s Global Top 50 – more than double the number in 2020.
Among genres generating over $100 million in Spotify royalties, the fastest-growing were Brazilian funk (+36%), K-pop (+31%), Latin trap (+29%), Latin urban (+27%) and reggaeton (+24%).
Spanish-language artist Bad Bunny was Spotify’s most streamed artist globally. Meanwhile, Spanish artist Rosalía’s album Lux features multiple languages. Last month she became the first person to win the BRIT Award for Best International Artist for an album predominantly sung in a language other than English.
IFPI’s Global Artist rankings included K-pop act Stray Kids at No.2 for 2025, while Bad Bunny climbed to No.5. The Top 20 included Japanese band Mrs Green Apple at No.13 and Korean act Seventeen at No.14.
With the full publication of the Loud & Clear, Spotify has broken down the data in a blog post – which also marks 20 years of Spotify.
“Piracy was rampant, revenue was shrinking, and, for most artists, the path to a global career was incredibly narrow,” stated the post of the music landscape two decades ago. “The question on everyone’s mind wasn’t about growth, but whether the industry could survive. It was at that moment that Spotify was founded, to help rebuild a broken system.”
Here, Spotify reveals key finding from the latest Loud & Clear report.
• $100K artists: In 2025, there were more than 13,800 artists who generated at least $100,000 a year from Spotify alone - nearly 1,400 more than last year.
• Million dollar careers: A decade ago, the very top artist on Spotify reached $10 million in annual royalties for the first time. Today, the 80 top artists each generate over $10 million annually from Spotify alone.
• 50%+ comes from abroad: Only two years after debuting, artists already see more than half of their royalties coming from outside of their home countries, on average.
• Multiple languages: In 2025, songs in 16 different languages reached Spotify’s Global Top 50 - more than double the number in 2020.
• The rising 100,000th artist: In 2025, the 100,000th highest-earning artist generated more than $7,300 in royalties from Spotify alone. In 2015, the artist in that same position generated about $350 – a more than a twentyfold increase in a decade.
• Fresh Finds: More than one in 10 artists generating over $100,000 annually on Spotify today were first playlisted on the Fresh Finds playlists. That is more than 1,600 artists who have since gone on to build six-figure careers.
• DIY music careers: In 2025, more than a third of artists generating $10K or more in royalties from Spotify were DIY or started their careers as DIY (meaning they self-release their music through independent distributors).
• $11 billion growth engine: For another year, Spotify was the highest-paying retailer globally – paying the music industry more than $11 billion in 2025. This brings total lifetime payouts to nearly $70 billion.
• $1.5 billion in ticket sales: By the first half of 2025, Spotify had driven $1 billion in gross concert ticket sales for artists. That total has now exceeded $1.5 billion.
• Songwriters’ earnings: 2025 marked the largest annual music publishing payout in Spotify’s history. Over the past two years alone, Spotify paid approximately $5 billion to the publishers and organisations representing songwriters.
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