Spotify announced it paid $11 billion to the music industry in 2025. Largest annual payout in history. Definitely not a small number. And they want us to feel like this is a win for the music industry.

And it is a win... for some. Here's who won, specifically: the big 4 major record labels, distributors, publishers, and collecting societies. Not, as some might still assume, the artists who made the music.

Bonnie Tyler's 'Total Eclipse of the Heart' hit one billion streams. Spotify sent her a commemorative plaque. It sounds like she should have made bank off the song she made famous, right? She said the money was "just about nothing." The $2.7 million that Spotify reportedly paid out went to whoever currently holds the rights - which, forty years and multiple label changes later, is not straightforwardly the artist who sang the song.

The 100,000th highest-earning artist on Spotify made $7,300 in 2025. That's in the top 0.77% of 13 million uploaders. Less than 1%, considered the top earners on the platform, earning what is not a living wage anywhere in Australia. What most of us would barely consider supplementary income.

But what artists are finally starting to realise is that this is no accident. It's not even uncommon. The structure is working exactly as it was designed. And now we know… it was never actually designed for musicians. So the question that remains is, what IS designed for musicians – and how can we show up for it?

New blog from The Pack digs into the royalty chain, the user-centric alternative, and why a high five and a commemorative plaque is doing a lot of heavy lifting.👉 https://www.packmusic.au/blog/follow-the-money

#StreamingRoyalties #IndependentMusic #MusicEconomics #ThePackMusic #PlatformCooperative #FairPay #MusicianRights