Spotify
Not a record label, but the dominant streaming platform, and the gatekeeper that sets the terms most artists actually live under. Included here for two contested practices: 'Discovery Mode,' which critics call modern payola, and its 2024 move to stop paying royalties on tracks under 1,000 annual streams.
Spotify is the world's largest music-streaming service. It isn't a record label, but it is the gatekeeper that determines how recorded-music money flows, and its policy choices ripple across every artist's earnings, which is why it appears in this archive.
Two of its practices are documented here: Discovery Mode, in which artists and labels accept a lower royalty rate in exchange for algorithmic promotion, which critics and a class-action suit call a "modern form of payola", and its 2024 policy that withholds royalties from any track with fewer than 1,000 streams in a year.
Primary sources
- [1]Spotify, company, Wikipedia [archived]
Cases on file
Spotify stopped paying royalties on any track under 1,000 streams (2024)
As of April 1, 2024, a track must reach 1,000 streams in the prior 12 months before it earns any royalties at all. Spotify says this targets fraud and that 99.5% of streams clear the bar; critics say it strips income from the vast majority of artists' catalogs.
Spotify's 'Discovery Mode': pay a lower royalty, get promoted, critics call it modern payola
Discovery Mode boosts a track in Spotify's recommendations in exchange for the artist accepting a reduced royalty. Critics, including members of Congress, the Recording Academy, and a 2025 class-action suit, call it 'modern payola.' Spotify markets it as personalization and disputes the label.