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# How do Spotify royalties work?
- URL: https://www.hypebot.com/how-do-spotify-royalties-work/
- Published: 2023-02-17T15:21:34.000Z
- Updated: 2023-02-17T15:21:41.000Z
- Description: While many argue that Spotify royalties should be higher, the specifics of how those royalties are calculated aren’t always well understood. This week’s Hypebot Flashback Friday post answers that question.. Continue reading [https://www.hypebot.com/hypebot/2023/02/how-do-spotify-royalties-work.html]
- Author: Bruce Houghton
- Tags: Music Business, Songwriting & Music Publishing, Streaming, DIY musicians, music, music industry, musician, musicians, Spotify, #wp, #wp-post, #Import 2026-01-21 09:44

While many argue that Spotify royalties should be higher, the specifics of how those royalties are calculated aren’t always well understood.

This week’s Hypebot Flashback Friday post answers that question.

While payout rates have fluctuated a little since this was published ([here’s an update on estimated Spotify payout rates for 2023](https://www.hypebot.com/how-much-spotify-is-paying-per-stream-in-2023/)), how those royalties are calculated, divided, and paid has not changed at all.

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*by *Juan C Sarassa* from [*Key of B#*](https://keysofbsharp.wordpress.com/blog/?ref=hypebot.com)*

First of all, it’s important to understand the underlying legal framework that allows artists and songwriters to get paid, and that’s Copyright law. In music, there are two separate copyrightable assets when we stream a song and that’s the musical composition, a.k.a. the song, and the sound recording, a.k.a. the master.

![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/3a/95/3a957c06-c825-4057-9939-0a274cc16d23/content/images/keysofbsharp-files-wordpress-com/2021/10/1-w-800.png)

### ***[Continue reading…](https://www.hypebot.com/how-spotify-royalties-actually-work/)***