That's false information.. Spotify does NOT distribute 70% of their revenue.

As per their latest financial statement ( https://s29.q4cdn.com/175625835/files/doc_financials/2023/q3... ):

  Revenue:         3357
  Cost of revenue: 2472

> Cost of revenue consists predominantly of royalty and distribution costs related to content streaming.

> Cost of revenue also includes the cost of podcast content assets (both produced and licensed)

> Cost of revenue also includes credit card and payment processing fees for subscription revenue, customer service, certain employee compensation and benefits, cloud computing, streaming, facility, and equipment costs.

So all operational costs is included in that "70%", including: infrastructure, payment fees, etc. etc.

A breakdown:

  217 committed Google Cloud Platform per quarter (based on 4344 in 5 years)
  105 for amortization of content assets (podcasts they bought)
   30 for some content write-off
  102 "minimum royalty" for licensed content (not the regular artists), (based on (2124-83) in 5 years)

  100 my estimate for app store fees, assuming 15% fees for 20% of the users
   67 my estimate for ca. 2% creditcard fees
    ? streaming
    ? facility
    ? support software + employees
    ? equipment, software, etc
    ? refunds etc
    ? free spotify for employees

So a total of AT LEAST 723 is not related to paying out royalties. (2472-723)/3357

They're paying less than 52%. My estimate would be between 35% and 40%