82% of Musicians Earn Less Than $270 a Year From Spotify and Other Streaming Music Platforms, Study Finds
British regulators are taking a serious look at the impact that music streaming is having on musicians. Their research is unearthing some depressing stats.
According to a survey of The Ivors Academy and the Musicians’ Union, both based in the UK, 82% of artists earned less than £200 (around $270) a year in 2019. That includes some artists who have wracked up millions of streams worldwide. The data reveals the appalling state of artist royalty payments from music streaming services like Spotify, YouTube, and Apple Music.
But this gets even worse. 92% of survey respondents said that less than 5% of their earnings came from music streaming in 2019. Around 43% of respondents said that insufficient income from music streaming forces them to hold down another job outside of the industry. The revelations come as the British government’s inquiry into music streaming business practices gets underway.