Most of the Music on Streaming Services was Played Less Than 1,000 Times Last Year

Many underground musicians claim that they barely see any payouts from streaming services, so the numbers in a recent report make sense: Most artists available for streaming were streamed less than 1,000 times all year in 2023.

According to Luminate’s 2023 Year-End Music Report, 158.6 million songs, or 86.2% of the total catalog in streaming services (measured using ISRCs, or International Standard Recording Codes), only got 1,000 plays or less last year. That means eight of every 10 songs in total go unstreamed or very rarely streamed.

This happens because algorithms on streaming platforms make certain tracks popular, leaving the rest in the dust. More mainstream artists get played and suggested over and over, while the rest go un-listened to. Most artists struggle to break through and actually make their mark when this is the case. This has more underground artists talking and strategizing about how to change things and beat the unbeatable algorithm.

Of course, the predatory tactics of most streaming providers definitely isn’t helping. For example, Spotify doesn’t pay royalties out at all on tracks that get less than 1,000 plays in a year. And since we now know that’s most tracks, that means Spotify doesn’t pay most of the artists on the platform. In fact, 24.8% of the entire Spotify platform allegedly got zero plays, roughly equaling 45.6 million tracks.

So what exactly can we do to make sure that smaller artists get streams? There isn’t necessarily an easy fix to this one, but one thing is clear. If you do stream music, make a concerted effort to listen to and stream underground bands and artists in order to get them more plays, if they crack the code and get streamed for than 1,000 times, they’ll be in on that sweet streamer money… and at least get a few bucks at the end of the year.