Spotify pays 126 million to the Italian music industry

That it was the number one music streaming platform in the country - as it is globally - was common knowledge. No one, however, knew in detail the extent of the economic contribution offered to our music business. Until today: with the first Italian verticalisation of Loud & Clear, Spotify specifies that in 2023 in our country it paid royalties of 126 million, a 400% increase compared to 2017.

Money partly went to record companies and artists, partly to copyright collecting societies and authors, but the intersection with the national turnover of recorded music is nevertheless interesting: the recorded music market here in Italy grew by 18.8% over the previous 12 months, to 440 million, according to Fimi. Streaming is the main source of revenue with 287 million. And Spotify, which paid the global music industry $9 billion, is clearly the top source of business. The growth rate of revenues generated by Italian artists through Spotify was 20%, which is higher than the overall market growth rate of 18.8%. More than 1,200 Italian artists generated more than EUR 10,000 in royalties from Spotify, while the number of those generating more than EUR 50,000 in royalties more than quadrupled.

Interesting detail: almost 50 per cent of all royalties generated by Italian artists on Spotify in 2023 came from listeners outside Italy, in line with global figures that see artists from countries for which English is not the first language rewarded (more than half of the 66,000 artists who earned at least 10,000 euros on Spotify). And playlists play a key role: since 2019, the average number of countries in which an artist is streamed on Spotify playlists has increased by 62 per cent. As for the most listened to Italians abroad, the list is well-known: it ranges from Maneskin to Baby Gang, via... Vivaldi.

In general, more than half of the discovery of new artists on Spotify takes place via 'scheduled' playlists (editorial, customised editorial, algorithmic) . In 2023, more than 5,000 Italian artists were added to the platform's editorial playlists. Artists added to editorial playlists for the first time ever in 2023 recorded significant peaks in their active audience after a period of only 30 days.

"Streaming," emphasises Federica Tremolada, managing director Southern & Eastern Europe at Spotify, "has enabled more and more artists to achieve success, contributing to a revolution that is fostering talent that would not have found a place on shop shelves just a few years ago. If you were to list all the artists on Spotify globally, in order of earnings, even the 50th in the charts would have generated at least $16,500 from our platform alone. This demonstrates Spotify's real commitment to supporting the careers and self-support of artists, who in turn see the platform as a real opportunity for growth.