Complaint and response
“I don’t think we’ve figured [how to make money in streaming] out yet, unfortunately, in the way that business is being done today,” Rhymes is quoted in an interview appearing at Yahoo! Finance (HERE). “It’s imperative that they find a way to respect the value of the artist and the artist’s creations.”
Spotify payouts can be difficult to understand, as the payout formula is based on an artist’s share of total plays — an indirect method that is very unlike paying per played stream and one that tilts in favor of megastars who compete well at every level. Per-stream payouts can seem miniscule in this structure, averaging between $0.003 and $0.005 per streamed song. We do not know what Rhymes’s average payout is.
We take no stance here, but it is important to remember that artists choose to be in Spotify; the streamer does not play music which has not been uploaded by an authorized artist, label, or distributor.
In this case, a Spotify representative is quoted by Yahoo! Finance: “Spotify paid out more than $1 million in 2025 for streams of Busta Rhymes’ catalogue.”
