Royalty Model Changes in Effect for Spotify Since April 2024

The beginning of April 2024, Spotify implemented its previously announced changes to its royalty system. Songs now require a minimum of 1,000 streams to be eligible for monetization.

Among them is the introduction of a minimum stream requirement for a track to begin generating royalties. According to Spotify’s website, “tracks must have reached a threshold of at least 1,000 streams in the previous 12 months to be included in the recorded music royalty pool calculation.” In addition, they will have to reach a minimum number of unique listeners to become eligible for monetization.

While Spotify justifies the decision based on combating fraud, it was also met with much criticism, as the platform once again prioritizes artists with larger audiences over smaller ones. Even though eligible tracks will now generate 0.5% more royalties, Spotify’s intention to put ‘legitimate working artists’ first devalues the work of those it considers less legitimate based on clicks and views.

Moreover, the streaming service will continue removing short noise content and only allow quality versions of such recordings that are at least 2 minutes long.

Spotify will continue tackling artificial streaming and detecting fraudulent activity to ensure the payout model is not exploited. It will also begin penalizing those who decide to engage in such activity by charging them with a per-track penalty.