You use Spotify to listen to music. Here’s how money from ads and subscription fees flows to artists

AP Music Writer

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Every day, millions of people stream music on Spotify. Some pay a monthly subscription fee for uninterrupted access. Others enjoy the same privileges for free and sit through regular commercial breaks. But how does money from advertisers and subscription fees move to artists’ wallets? According to Spotify exec Charlie Hellman, the streaming platform takes roughly one-third, and roughly two-thirds are doled out to the music’s rights holders. That percentage is calculated by adding up how many times music owned by a particular rights holder was streamed and dividing by the number of streams in that market, in a process called “streamshare.” Artists and journalists have criticized the pro-rata system and there are proposals for a new system.