Spotify faces widespread criticism for its royalty system, which many artists and critics argue effectively "steals" from creators through low pay, lack of transparent, pro-rata payouts, and policies that demonetize smaller artists in favor of major labels. The platform also faces security issues, such as unauthorized scraping of its library by third parties. 

Key issues surrounding allegations against Spotify include:

+ Unfair Compensation Model: Instead of paying per stream, Spotify uses a "pro-rata" system that redistributes royalty pools, often favoring top-tier artists over indie musicians.

+ Demonetization of Small Artists: Policy changes have led to the demonetization of songs with low stream counts, which critics describe as a "reverse Robin Hood" scenario.

+ Allegations of Stolen Earnings: Critics argue that the system is structured to withhold fair pay, with some claiming the platform and its leadership are unethical regarding artist remuneration.

+ Data and Content Theft: In late 2025, it was reported that "Anna's archive" scraped 256 million audio tracks and 86 million music files from Spotify, leading to lawsuits.
Fake Playlists: There are accusations that,YouTube, fake playlists are used to manipulate streams and steal revenue. 

(These issues have led to artists leaving the platform, Wikipedia reports and Reddit discussions.)

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