Daniel Ek has some Spotify royalty-payment stats he'd like to share, starting with the payment of $7b to music rightsholders in 2021.

Spotify paid out $7B to the music industry in in 2021, more than 1,000 artists generated more than $1m on Spotify and for the second consecutive year, Spotify paid out more than $1b to publishing rightsholders. More than 50k artists generated $10k from Spotify alone, 28% of whom self-distribute and 34% of whom live in countries outside the top 10 music markets.

Spotify says that $7b figure represents "the highest annual payment from any single retailer in history."

“Just like the hyper-competitive worlds of film or sports, it’s difficult to make it in music. I get that,” Ek wrote on the company blog. “But the figures we’re sharing show that Spotify is improving on the music industry of the past, and more and more artists are able to stand out in the streaming era.”

The number of artists crossing each revenue threshold—$10k, $100k, $1m—has more than doubled in the last five years, he wrote.

“Last year, if there was one big takeaway, I’d say it was this: Not only is streaming driving record revenues for the music industry, but there are also more artists sharing in that success than ever before,” Ek continued. “And this year’s numbers reveal further meaningful progress toward a more vibrant and diverse music industry.”