Spotify will reportedly change their royalty model beginning in 2024 and will only pay out artists for songs that have gotten at least 1,000 streams.

Spotify Makes New Minimum Annual Threshold for Streams

The digital streaming platform world is forever evolving. On Sunday (Nov. 5), Music Business Worldwide reported Spotify will adjust their royalty model starting in the first quarter of next year. Beginning in January, songs must garner at least 1,000 streams annually in order to register royalty payments.

Sources tell MBW the move is “designed to [demonetize] a population of tracks that today, on average, earn less than five cents per month.” This will reportedly allow Spotify to reallocate $40 million from songs that do not meet the threshold to songs that do.

“Often, these micro-payments aren’t even reaching human beings; aggregators frequently require a minimum level of [paid-out streaming royalties] before they allow indie artists to withdraw the money,” the source tells MBW. “We’re talking about tracks [whose royalties] aren’t hitting those minimum levels, leaving their Spotify royalty payouts sitting idle in bank accounts.”

XXL has reached out to Spotify for comment.

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Millions of Songs Were Never Played on DSPs in 2022

Back in April, it was revealed there were 38 million songs uploaded to the platforms like Spotify and Apple Music that were never played in 2022. DSPs are also having to deal with the new A.I. issue. In May, Spotify revealed it had removed tens of thousands of A.I.-produced songs from their platform following complaints from major record labels.

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