Spotify Track Monetization FAQ

Last year, we let you know that Spotify was changing its approach to royalty payments.

As of April 2024, these changes are in effect for all artists and we thought it was important to break them down for you.

What are Spotify’s new requirements?

Starting April 2024, tracks must have reached a threshold of at least 1,000 streams in the previous 12 months to be eligible for Spotify royalty payments.

These streams also must have come from a minimum number of unique listeners to ensure that a small handful of users can’t stream the track over and over again to become eligible.  Spotify does not share this number publicly in an effort to prevent bad actors from gaming the system.

For example:

• If a track is streamed over 1,000 times on Spotify in its first calendar month of availability, by the minimum number of unique listeners determined by Spotify, the track will generate royalties for all of those streams.
• If a track is streamed 750 times on Spotify in its first calendar month of availability, by the minimum number of unique listeners determined by Spotify, and 500 times in its second month, that track will generate royalties for all 500 streams in that second month (as well as for streams in subsequent months, as long as it remains eligible).

Please note that: 

• This is calculated at a track level and not a release level, so there may be cases where some tracks on a release are eligible for monetization in a month, but other tracks on the same release are not; and
• This is measured by Spotify on a monthly basis, so there may be cases where a track is eligible in one month but not another month (and vice versa).

And please keep in mind that the daily streaming numbers we receive from Spotify, which are also reflected in Spotify for Artists, aren’t always reflective of royalty-eligible streams.  So, while this data should provide a helpful estimate of track monetization eligibility, it is not guaranteed that all displayed streams are monetizable.

Additionally, Spotify’s artificial streaming detection systems will continue to remove artificial streams once identified (and any streams determined to be artificial will not count towards track monetization eligibility).

Source: https://support.spotify.com/us/artists/article/track-monetization-eligibility/

You can learn more about these policies by reading this blog post by Spotify.

How can I keep track of the number of streams my release has with Spotify to know if I meet these requirements?

You can find a helpful estimate of the number of streams your tracks are generating by tapping into your data analytics inside the UnitedMasters application or by logging into your Spotify for Artists account. 

Again, please keep in mind that these daily streaming numbers aren’t always reflective of royalty-eligible streams.

Official streaming data, which is used to calculate royalty payments for artists, is provided to UnitedMasters directly by each music service and will not include streams deemed ineligible for monetization by the music service due to artificial streaming.

My track just passed 1,000 total streams but I have not received a payment from Spotify. Why didn’t I get paid?

It’s important to remember that your Wallet balance will be updated when we receive and process reporting and payment from music services (which is typically 30-45 days after the month in which streams occurred but can be longer depending on the music service).

This means that, when your music generates royalties in music services, you can expect to start seeing those royalties applied to your Wallet balance in about two months.

For example: