Every few weeks an artist messages us with a screenshot from Spotify for Artists. "Bhai, 640 streams on this song, but the royalty report shows zero for Spotify. Something is wrong?" Most of the time nothing is wrong with the report. The song simply hasn't crossed Spotify's 1,000-stream line yet.
This rule has been live since April 2024, and a lot of independent artists in India still haven't heard of it. If you release often, especially in Bhojpuri, Haryanvi or devotional music where people put out a new song every week or two, it decides which of your tracks actually pay you. Here's how it works and what you can do about it.
The rule, in one line
A track has to reach at least 1,000 streams in the previous 12 months before it earns recording royalties on Spotify. That's straight from Spotify's own help page on track monetization eligibility.
There's a second condition people miss. The track also needs a minimum number of unique listeners. Spotify doesn't say what that number is, on purpose, so that nobody can game it. So 1,000 plays from you and five friends looping the song on their phones won't do it.
Why Spotify did this
Spotify explained it in its November 2023 announcement. Tens of millions of tracks were getting between 1 and 1,000 streams a year, and on average they made about $0.03 a month. That money mostly never reached anyone, because distributors have minimum withdrawal amounts and banks charge transfer fees.
So Spotify stopped paying those tiny amounts and spread that money across the tracks that do qualify. The total royalty pool didn't shrink. Spotify says that for eligible tracks, payments went up by about 0.5%.
What happens when a song crosses 1,000
This part is good news, and most people get it wrong. Once a song becomes eligible, it earns for every stream in that month, not just the streams above 1,000.
Spotify gives an example. Say your song gets 750 streams in its first month and 500 in the second. In month two it crosses 1,000 over the last 12 months, so all 500 streams from month two are paid. The 750 from month one aren't paid, because the song wasn't eligible then.
A song can also drop out. If a track from 2024 has slowed down to 60 streams a month, it may fall below 1,000 for the last 12 months and stop earning until it picks up again. Eligibility is checked every month.
It's counted per recording, not per song
The threshold applies to each unique recording, which in practice means each ISRC. ISRC is the code that identifies one specific recording.
This matters if you upload a lot of versions. Say you release "Bhole Baba Ki Barat" as the original, then a slowed and reverb version, then a DJ remix, each with its own ISRC. Spotify treats them as three recordings. If each gets 400 streams, you have 1,200 streams in total, and none of the three earns.
Spotify also says a single and the album version of the same song should share one ISRC. If you're putting an old single on an EP or album, use the original ISRC instead of making a new one. That way the streams add up on one recording. We covered ISRCs and metadata in more detail in our metadata checklist.
How to check where your songs stand
1. Open Spotify for Artists and go to the Music tab. 2. Choose "Songs" and set the time filter to "Last 12 months". 3. Look at the stream count next to each track. Anything under 1,000 is probably not earning on Spotify right now.
Spotify is careful to call this an estimate. The streams shown in Spotify for Artists aren't always the same as royalty-eligible streams, and the unique-listener rule isn't visible there. Your distributor's royalty report is the final word.
Reading your royalty report without panicking
A few things confuse almost everyone the first time:
- The report is a few months behind. Stores send their sales reports to distributors after the month closes, so what you see in your account today is usually for an earlier month, not for this week's streams.
- There's no fixed rate per stream. Spotify says plainly that it doesn't pay a per-play rate. Your share depends on the total streams in each country that month, and on whether listeners were on Premium or the free plan. So 1,000 streams in India and 1,000 streams in the UK won't pay the same.
- Zero on Spotify doesn't mean zero everywhere. The 1,000-stream rule is Spotify's. A small song can still earn from JioSaavn, YouTube Music, Apple Music, Instagram and Facebook, or callertunes, depending on the store's terms.
- This rule is only about recording royalties. Publishing royalties for the lyricist and composer are separate, and Spotify says the eligibility rule doesn't change them. If you write your own songs, our IPRS registration guide explains how to collect that side.
What to actually change
You don't need to stop releasing. But some habits make sense now:
- Push fewer songs harder. Ten songs at 300 streams each pay nothing on Spotify. Two songs at 1,500 each both pay. Give each release a proper push with Reels, Shorts and a smart link before moving on.
- Don't split streams across lots of versions. One strong original usually does better than an original plus three slowed and lofi copies, each with its own ISRC.
- Keep old songs alive. A song that's close to 1,000 for the year can stay eligible with a little attention. Add it to your own playlists, use it in a Reel, or mention it when a new song comes out.
- Never buy streams to cross the line. Spotify charges labels and distributors per track when it finds flagrant artificial streaming, and those songs get taken down. We wrote about this in our takedowns guide. Real listeners are the only safe way through.
- Have a release plan. Our release timeline guide covers uploading early and pitching to editors at least seven days before release, which gives a new song a much better start.
How RMX fits in
At RMX Music we send your songs to 95+ platforms, including Spotify, JioSaavn, YouTube Music, Instagram and the callertune services, so a song that's still small on Spotify can earn on other stores. You keep 95% of your royalties, and if you run a label with sub-labels, the dashboard pays their royalties out automatically.
The Label account is a one-time ₹4,500 for life, with unlimited releases and artists. Agents and bigger setups can take the ₹15,000 lifetime Agent account with unlimited labels. More than 3,000 artists and 2,200 labels already distribute over 20,000 tracks with us.
If you've got a song ready and a plan to push it, create your RMX account here.