Spotify paid the UK music industry £750m last year

Spotify's contribution to the UK music industry was significant last year, with the company revealing that it paid £750 million in royalties. The most-streamed British artist on Spotify was Ed Sheeran, whose songs were played 6. 35 billion times. Coldplay came second with 5. 58 billion streams, followed by Harry Styles with 5. 11 billion streams. However, British artists were unable to crack Spotify's Top 10 most-played chart, which was topped by Taylor Swift (on 29 billion streams) and also featured Puerto Rican star Bad Bunny, Mexico's Peso Pluma, and Colombia's Karol G. Karol G is a star of música urbana, whose reggaeton and R&B influenced sound has made her one of the world's most-streamed artists. Spotify's 'Loud and Clear' campaign aims to provide transparency on how it pays the music industry. However, the company is unable to say how much of those royalty payments actually goes to musicians. That's because every artist has a different contract with their record label and publishers, which determines how the money is divided. The artist's share is often around 16%. This means an artist whose music generated £100,000 on Spotify might only receive £16,000 in royalty payments, before tax. Spotify has about a 50% share of the UK music streaming market, which means artists could make the same amount again via platforms like Apple Music, Amazon Music, and Tidal. More than half the artists who generated $10,000 (£8,000) on Spotify last year are from countries where English is not the first language. English is still the top language for music globally, accounting for 54. 9% of the top 10,000 songs. But its share of the market is falling, with languages like Hindi and Japanese making gains. Spotify UK's head of artists and industry partnerships, Bryan Johnson, noted that 75% of all the royalties paid to UK artists came from international listeners, suggesting there is still a huge export opportunity as the streaming market matures.