Max HeyraudAccording to Spotify’s new guidelines, more than half of all music on the platform will no longer be eligible for royalty payments. Spotify now requires a 1,000-stream minimum before any track begins to generate royalties on the service.
According to Music Business Worldwide, Spotify is expected to unveil the most substantial changes to its revenue scheme ye. The most contentious of these adjustments will go into effect in Q1 2024 as Spotify demonetizes tracks that receive less than 1,000 plays per year.
Spotify anticipates the new 1,000-play minimum yearly threshold will reallocate tens of millions of dollars per year from that 0.5% of the royalty pool to the other 99.5%. Spotify expects that by 2024, $40 million will have been transferred from tracks with fewer than 1,000 streams to those with more than 1,000 streams.
Over two-thirds of all Spotify music has yet to meet the 1,000-stream barrier and will not generate royalties under the platform’s new guidelines. This means Spotify will be blocking royalties from the majority of the music on the platform.
“This targets those royalty payouts whose value is being destroyed by being turned into fractional payments – pennies or nickels,” an unnamed source said to MBW.
