Starting early 2024 there will be a Spotify threshold required for each track to qualify for monetization. Spotify will no longer pay royalties for tracks that fail to generate a minimum number of streams. Here are the facts.
Minimum Streams Required for Monetization – Requirement #1
1,000 Streams per track annually
The Spotify Threshold works in somewhat of a convoluted manner. It’s stated that Spotify calculates payments monthly. Every month Spotify calculates payments, it will look at the performance of a track for the previous 12 months. If the track has generated 1,000 streams in the 12 months before the month of payment calculations, the track will be paid for streams. The caveat is that it will only be paid for the streams generated during the month the track crossed over to 1,000.
Examples:
Jan. – Dec. You generate 900 Streams
❌ You don’t qualify for a payment
Jan. – Dec. You generate 1,000 Streams. If through 11 months you generated 999 streams and in the 12th month you got a single stream that crossed you over to 1,000, only that single stream qualifies for a payment.
✅❌ You qualify for a payment but you only get paid for the single stream that pushed you to 1,000.
Jan. – Dec. You generate 1,000 Streams. If through 6 months you earned 1,000 streams, all streams in the following 6 months would qualify for a payment.
✅❌ You qualify for payment but only for the streams following the initial 1,000 qualifying streams. If you generated another 1,000 streams in the following 6 months, you’d be paid for 1,000 streams and not 2,000.
Minimum Listeners Required for Monetization – Requirement #2
? Listeners per track annually
Spotify is imposing a Listener threshold on top of the streaming threshold but refuses to disclose the required number of listeners citing the potential for manipulation. For insight into what the number could be, Deezer’s threshold requires 1,000 streams from at least 500 listeners. Spotify’s threshold is exponentially higher than Deezer’s, so you can use that as a reference point.
What Pays & What Doesn’t
Artists won’t be paid Sound Recording royalties for tracks that fail to generate 1,000 streams annually. Songwriters will be paid Publishing royalties for all streams because Spotify doesn’t want smoke with PROs. If you’re an artist singing a song someone else has written, you get nothing. If you’re a singer and a songwriter, you get half the set of royalties you’re owed.
