Spotify released a slew of statistics Tuesday (3/19), noting first that it paid out $9b to the music industry in 2023. Among the data: The number of artists generating $1m, $100k and $10k has nearly tripled since 2017; indie artists generated $4.5b last year; and publishing rightsholders are earning more now than in the CD era.

Usually, the only stats we care about in March involve three-point shooting percentages by smaller schools ranked in the double digits in the NCAA tournament, but these are pretty interesting.

Last year saw 66k artists generate $10k-$99k, 11.6k artists pull in $100k-$999k, and 1,250 artists top $1m. Spotify estimates that streaming revenue represents about a quarter of these creators' total earnings from recorded music.

Intriguingly, more than 1,000 members of the million-dollar club did not have a single song in the global Top 50 all year, and the majority of the artists started their careers after 2010.

If you’re wondering what it takes to pull in $1m or more a year from Spotify, the company estimates an artist needs 4m-5m monthly listeners or 20m-25m monthly streams.

DIY artists and independent label acts had a record year, representing about half the money paid out by Spotify. The $4.5b generated by indie acts is four times larger than 2017’s payout.

More than half of the 66k artists topping $10k on Spotify perform in languages other than English; Spanish, German and Portuguese led the way.

Publishing rightsholders have received $4b from Spotify over the last two years. The company quoted a stat from economist Will Page's annually calculated Global Value of Music Copyright that reported music publishing was more than double in 2022 what it was in 2001, $5.5b vs. $2.5b.

All the info can be found here on Spotify’s Loud and Clear blog.