Spotify’s answer to being criticised for not paying enough is complete transparency. To whit, they’ve published that in 2023 it paid out $6 billion globally and £750 million in UK royalties.

Having also been criticised for ending payment on royalties under 1000 streams, they expect to divert $40 million to more popular songs. Sounds bad, but 1000 streams equates to about 20p.

Is this a good deal? It’s unclear. Ed Sheeran managed to get 6.35 billion streams… how much of that 750 did he get, and how much should billions of streams be worth? How much should 1000 streams be worth?

The debate continues.