This week, February 1st, Spotify raised their fees on Spotify Premium, Duo and Family for new customers. Current customers got an extra month with the old price before they also get their fees raised.
Questions on social media groups on facebook and other places are being raised as to wether Spotify will increase the revenue for the artists. Those who owns the work. So far there are no indications that this will happen.
Spotify’s reply: “As Spotify continues to innovate and invest in providing listeners with greater value than ever before, including the best audio content and user experience, Spotify occasionally updates their prices. Spotify may also adjust our prices to reflect local macroeconomic factors and meet market demands while offering unparalleled service. Spotify’s committed to delivering the best audio content around the world, and are always working to bring users more original and exclusive content, a highly personalized experience, and powerful discovery tools.
Spotify reported its third-quarter earnings on October 29th, showing a higher result then expected after a really bad second quarter that was caused by the uncertainty and financial hits due to the pandemic. They
In the three-months ending Sept. 30, Spotify grew its customer base to 144 million paid subscribers and 320 million total monthly active users (MAUs). Total revenue in the third quarter was €1.97 billion ($2.29 billion in current dollars), up 14% on the same period the previous year and a 5% rise on Q2’s €1.89 billion ($2.22 billion) tally.
New market launches in Russia and a number of surrounding markets, coupled with a return to growth for Spotify’s advertising business helped boost revenues at the streaming giant during the third quarter, according to the company’s latest financial results.
Spotify is no higher then number 7 when it comes to royalties to the artstist, which is is just above Deezer and Soundcloud FreeTier
Here’s Spotify’s topline third quarter results:
• Total revenue grew 14% Y/Y to €1.97 billion ($2.29 billion)
• Total monthly active users (MAUs) rose to 320 million, up 29% Y/Y, exceeding company expectations
• Premium subscribers are up to 144 million, generating €1.79 billion ($2.08 billion)
• Ad-supported sales bounced back to €185 million, up 41% on Q2 at the height of the pandemic
• Operating loss stood at €40 million, compared to Q2’s €167 million ($196 million) operating loss
Spotify is no higher then number 7 when it comes to royalties to the artstist, which is is just above Deezer and Soundcloud FreeTier. In 2020 their pay per stream was $0.0018 or $1.80 per 1000 stream.
Here’s the list of the top 9 most used streamingservices and their royalties-payment.
| # | platform | pay per 1 stream | pay per 1000 streams | rank |
| 1 | Tidal | 0.011 | 11.00 |  |
| 2 | Soundcloud HighTier | 0.010 | 10.00 | |
| 3 | Napster | 0.0082 | 8.20 |  |
| 4 | AmazonMusic | 0.0082 | 8.20 | |
| 5 | AppleMusic | 0.0073 | 7.30 |  |
| 6 | YoutubeMusic | 0.0029 | 2.91 |  |
| 7 | Spotify | 0.0018 | 1.80 |  |
| 8 | Deezer | 0.0011 | 1.10 |  |
| 9 | Soundcloud FreeTier | 0.0002 | 0.20 | |
Average roylaties in 2020
Of course, royalties vary from country to country, and the algorithm is also designed so that roylaty is calculated based on what kind of subscription the user has. So roylaties may vary, but the margins are small, and the order of the list does not change regardless of this.
So as you can see, the best players for Artists and winners for 2020 are Tidal, Soundcloud High Tier (paid subscriptions). The prices for subscriptions for Tidal and Spotify was the same until February, before Spotify raised theirs.
So why not give Tidal a try? There are some great difference between Tidal and Spotify, which we will look closer into in another article.
