In a spectacular data project, banking services company NetCredit has analyzed publically available Spotify play data to calculate highest-earning songs on the service, country by country. The result is a lot of data and a glorious array of detailed infographics.
The headline metric belongs to multi-genre performer Post Malone, whom NetCredit credits with earning $4.5-million just from U.S. listening.
The company notes that Spotify paid seven billion dollars in music royalties in 2021. NetCredit used the Ditto royalty metrics (see HERE), and figures the estimated artist payout per stream is between one-third and one-half of a penny. (In our mind, the exactness of the payout figure is less important than using a single number throughout the comparative study.)
Here are four key findings:
- Sunflower by Post Malone has made the most money overall ($4.5 million from U.S. listens)
- Blinding Lights by The Weeknd is the highest-earning song in 10 countries (more than any other individual song)
- Most of the highest-earning EDM songs are by a handful of artists, including Avicii, Elton John, SAINt JHN, the Chainsmokers or Tiësto
- Meanwhile, top-earning hip-hop/rap songs are often by local artists
But the real payoff of the NetCredit study is the infographic translation of highest-earning song, per country, per music genre. Below, the highest-earning song across all genres in every country:
To see this image full size, plus infographics of other music genres around the world, plus an interactive table for sorting the data, go HERE. (H/T Chris Marlowe.)
