As of November 2026, a song on Spotify earns no recorded royalties until it has at least 1,000 streams in the previous 12 months, plus a minimum number of unique listeners that Spotify does not publish. If your band puts out ten tracks that each get 400 plays a year, the platform pays your master nothing for any of them.

The rule, as Spotify states it

Spotify announced the policy in November 2023, and it has applied to all artists since April 2024. Its support page, checked in November 2026, lays out the mechanics:

  • Streams are counted globally, over the previous 12 months.
  • Eligibility is checked every month. A track can qualify, drop out and qualify again as its numbers move.
  • In the month a track first qualifies, it earns on all of that month's streams. Streams from earlier months are not paid back.
  • Each recording qualifies on its own. Technically that means each ISRC, the code your distributor attaches to a recording.
  • The rule covers recording royalties only. Publishing royalties for songwriters are calculated as before.

Spotify also said the total royalty pool did not shrink. The money that would have gone to tracks under the line is spread across the tracks above it. In its 2023 announcement, Spotify said 99.5% of streams already go to tracks with at least 1,000 a year, so the rule barely touches the top of the chart. It lands on the long tail, which is where most independent heavy music lives.

Why it hits album bands hardest

The floor is per track, and metal bands still release albums. A 45-minute record with an intro, an interlude and a nine-minute closer splits a modest audience across ten recordings. The lead single may clear 1,000. The deep cuts the band spent the most time on can sit at 600 for a year and earn nothing.

Nothing about that says the songs are weak. Spotify drew the line, and the line moved money from small catalogs toward big ones without making the pot any bigger.

Versions make it worse. According to Spotify, single and album versions of a song usually share an ISRC, so their streams add up. Live takes and acoustic versions usually get their own codes, which means their own separate climb to 1,000.

Plan releases around the floor

You cannot change the rule. You can stop splitting your audience across more recordings than it can carry.

  • Release fewer, stronger tracks. An EP of four songs people replay beats twelve songs that each stall at 300. Put the extra material on the vinyl bonus side or the merch-table tape, where it is part of something people pay for.
  • Waterfall the singles. Put out one single, then the next a few weeks later, then the album with the earlier singles included. Confirm with your distributor that the album versions carry the same ISRCs as the singles, so streams keep stacking on one recording instead of starting over.
  • Point fans at one track at a time. For a given month, every bio link, story, end screen and stage announcement sends people to the same song. Two hundred fans playing one track five times each is 1,000 streams. The same fans spread across a whole discography clear nothing. Since the listener minimum is unpublished, more people hearing it beats the same people replaying it.
  • Think before adding versions. A live cut or a remix is a new recording with its own threshold. Release it when it has its own audience, not as filler.
  • Watch the 12-month window. The "Last 12 months" view in Spotify for Artists shows which tracks sit near the line. Spotify calls that number an estimate; your distributor's royalty report is the one that counts.

Streaming finds fans, the rest pays the band

Even over the line, streaming at this size is a discovery channel. Treat it like the flyer on the venue door, not the cash box. The income comes from places where a fan pays the band directly: Bandcamp, vinyl and tapes, shirts at the table, the door split. Every stream should lead somewhere you can sell a record or collect an email address, because the listener on the platform belongs to the platform.

None of this means pulling your catalog. Being findable still matters. It just means the release plan serves the fans who show up, and the platform gets the songs most likely to clear its line.

Before your next release, cut the tracklist to the songs your audience will actually replay, and pick the one track every link points to this month.