Taylor Swift Rakes in $100 Million From Spotify Streams Alone

According to Spotify's year-end ‘Wrapped’ tally, which was released, Taylor Swift is predicted to earn more than $100 million in 2023 based on her year-over-year lead in streams. 

With about 26.1 billion streams since the year began, and based on an approximate calculation of $0.0035 per stream, her earnings as of last month (when ‘Wrapped’ concluded) stood at about $91.35 million.

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If December's numbers were comparable, the sum would probably be higher than $130 million. Requests for confirmation or comments have not received a response from Swift or Spotify representatives.

Other Top Earners on Spotify 

Peso Pluma, Drake, the Weeknd, Bad Bunny and the Weeknd are some of the other prominent top earners on Spotify for 2023. Despite not releasing a new album in 2023, it's noteworthy that The Weeknd achieved significant success with the 2016 song ‘Die for You.’

Image Courtesy: Variety

Although Bad Bunny and Peso Pluma are associated with independent labels, many of these artists own their masters, and their earnings may be more akin to Taylor Swift's than what their streaming figures may suggest.

Even though Spotify is the most popular streaming service in the world, there are other options as well. According to Billboard's estimate, Taylor Swift could make almost $200 million in revenue from streaming in 2023 alone.

Image Courtesy: People

Spotify’s Payment System

The truth is very different, despite these astounding numbers suggesting that streaming is a profitable source of revenue for all musicians. The total share of worldwide streams for a song or artist determines the streaming payment model. 

This system gives preference to well-known artists who command a substantial portion of all global streams, such as Swift, Drake, or the Beatles. But, the percentage decreases dramatically as you go down the hierarchy, meaning that lesser-known artists make much less money (the ‘Wrapped’ list only included figures for the top-tier artists mentioned above).

Together with the French streaming service Deezer, Universal and Warner Music Groups have been investigating an alternative "artist-centric" payment model to resolve this problem.