Is Spotify becoming more than just a place to stream songs? This week, Spotify’s global head of marketing and policy, music business, Sam Duboff, joins host Kristin Robinson to talk about how the platform is evolving to serve both artists and fans in new ways. From developing A.I. tools with the music industry’s consent to removing spam from the platform, Duboff shares how Spotify is working to deepen real listener connections and turn viral hits into lasting fandom. He dives into Spotify’s shift from a streaming service to the home of an entire music ecosystem, plus, what new features are coming next to help artists grow, connect and get paid.
00:00:00 Spotify Updates and Industry News
00:01:47 Introduction of the Episode
00:02:28 Guest Introduction: Sam Duboff
00:03:24 Role and Spotify For Artists
00:04:50 Favorite Spotify Playlists Discussion
00:08:25 AI Policies and Artist Collaboration
00:12:10 Principles for AI Product Development
00:16:01 AI Policies and Transparency Standards
00:20:39 Spam, Fraud, and Artificial Streaming Issues
00:30:20 Noise Tracks and Monetization Practices
00:37:38 Editorial Playlists and AI Music
00:45:12 Hi-Fi Features and Licensing Insights
00:50:06 Premium Tier and Free User Conversion
00:54:10 Direct Licensing Agreements
00:56:42 Spotify Leadership Changes and Culture
00:59:30 Stockholm Recommendations
01:00:23 Playlist Creation and Fun Prompts
01:02:00 Hot 100 Highlights
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Spotify’s Next Big Move: AI, Owning Fandom & Ending Spam w/ Sam Duboff | Billboard on the Record
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Shoutout to the interviewer, she was asking some GOOD ass questions
And their name will hereby be “Spottofy” (spit and shit” in Swedish ….)
Another take on this is “Baffel bullshit brains”//C
This magazine became such a joke it’s sad…
music BUSINESS
PAY TO UPLOAD EACH SONG on every music streaming site! Just like musicians/songwriters have to pay $65 per registration to legally copyright their music with the government.This will quickly stop most non-musician music(AI) to be uploaded. Even most human wanna-be Artists do not pay the Copyright Office to register their songs, because they don’t believe strongly enough in the potential of their songs. So imagine a non-musician who creates ‘prompt music’ paying higher fees to upload their songs? I doubt it! Especially if the entry fee for each song is $99 per song for each music streaming site. That adds up to a $1000 dollars for a 10 song album per music streaming site. You know the phrase ‘it takes money to make money’, that’s with any business. True musicians will pay the fees. Music streaming sites on top of the song entry should charge to also promote your song. No Pay, No Play. For instance; for $35 you get 100,000 streams,
$55/250,000 streams, $75/500,000 streams,
$100/1,000,000 streams,
so if people like it, it organically takes off from there. TRUE musicians already work long hours to create and perform their music DON’T let scammer, wanna-be musicians get rewarded for a ‘prompt’! You would not pay someone who wears a doctor’s outfit but is actually not a doctor to operate on you…why is it any different in the music business?
Why Spotify sucks… How not to.
Isn’t the real solution simple?
Instead of paying artists based on total global streams, what if my monthly subscription was divided among the artists I actually listened to?
Let’s say my plan is $9.99. Spotify takes 10% ($0.99) as their platform fee — fair enough. That leaves $9.00 to be distributed across the artists I played that month.
Personally, I don’t listen to hundreds of artists. Maybe 30 to 50 in a month — and usually the same ones on repeat. So if I listened to 50 artists, each one would get around $0.18 from my listening habits alone.
Now imagine that artist has 10,000 fans doing the same — that’s $1,800 a month for their work.
That feels fair. That feels human.
Because let’s be honest: we don’t “own” the music we listen to anymore. We’re renting experiences, and our money should follow the artists who create them — not just an algorithm counting plays.
Spotify could still thrive under this model. They’d still keep their cut, and they could continue growing through ad revenue — artist promotion tools, audio/video ads, sponsorships, and other creative formats for non-premium users.
The Big Picture (Estimated Global Impact)
Let’s run the numbers with today’s Spotify stats:
• 600 million total users
• 250 million premium subscribers paying $9.99/month
• Spotify keeps 10%, giving artists the other 90%
That means:
• $2.5 billion/month in total premium revenue
• $249.75 million/month for Spotify’s 10% cut
• $2.25 billion/month goes directly to artists based on actual listeners
Now add:
• 10 million artists running $100/month ad campaigns → $1 billion/month in extra revenue for Spotify
• 350 million free users listening to brand ads at $0.40 CPM (cost per listener):
• If each user hears 10 brand ads per month → $1.4 billion/month
Spotify’s total monthly revenue under this model:
$249.75M (subscriptions) + $1B (artist ads) + $1.4B (brand ads) = ≈ $2.65 billion per month
That’s ≈ $31.8 billion per year, while artists get 90% of the subscription pool — a massive win for both sides.
It’s not about breaking Spotify’s business model —
It’s about evolving it.
Fairness and profit can coexist when value flows where it’s earned: from listeners, to the artists they love.
PS: With my calculation Spotify would double their annual income… and I didn’t even use the full amount of artists paying ads + all the brands that could run ads as it was with radio.
I can totally see this (if any startup founders are reading). Similar to the cameo feature on Sora 2 where you can Cameo the likeness of those who’ve given access. Spotify or a competitor could implement a feature to cameo the artists vocal likeness, or their “signature sound” likeness allowing the AI to train on your music. And your fans could then use your likeness to create new music which if they monetize it once they hit a certain threshold, giving them the ability to monetize, the artists will then earn a percentage of the royalty generated by the streams by the da made music. Giving an incentive for people to remix/cameo other artists as they can also earn money, and also sprinkling in some fun as there will be this entirely new category of experimental music of what people may use your likeness for