Spotify is evolving its artist remuneration system

The new system, effective at the start of 2024, establishes a minimum threshold of 1,000 listens over 12 months to trigger a payment.

The world’s number one audio platform Spotify will change its method of remuneration for artists in 2024, by introducing a minimum number of plays to give rise to the right to remuneration, it announced on Tuesday November 22.

Spotify’s compensation system will evolve to meet three imperatives: “further discourage artificial streaming, better distribute small payments that do not reach artists, and put a brake on those who try to game the system” by focusing on the “noises” non-musical, he explains on his website intended for artists.

A billion dollars more for authors

By addressing each of these issues, Spotify estimates it can generate approximately $1 billion in additional revenue for “emerging and professional artists over the next five years”. From the beginning of 2024, the platform will introduce a minimum of 1,000 plays over 12 months to be able to generate a payment.

Spotify explains that below this threshold, the titles currently generate on average 0.03 dollars (0.028 euros) per month and are not affected by the rights holders while in total, they represent a sum of 40 million dollars. “We are simply going to use these tens of millions of dollars per year to increase payments to eligible securities,” indicates the platform.

Counteract artificial streaming

In its fight against artificial streaming, generated by robots in particular, Spotify announces that it will “charge labels and distributors for each title when blatant artificial streaming is detected on their content”. The amount of this withholding was not specified. At the start of 2023, a first global study on the subject estimated that between 1% and 3% of online listening was false, according to 2021 data in France from the National Music Center (CNM).

Third evolution of its method of remuneration, Spotify will raise its conditions for the payment of royalties on listening to “noises” non-musical (animal sounds, nature sounds, etc.). Titles of this type of noise must have a duration of at least two minutes and Spotify will discuss with the holders of these rights “to value noise streams at a fraction of the value of music streams”.

“It’s only a beginning”estimated at the beginning of November the boss of the music distribution platform Stem, Kristin Graziani, about the changes envisaged by Spotify, while judging that these were “not in the right direction”.