An analysis by Billboard has quantified how Spotify's move to bundle its paid music subscriptions with audiobooks has cut the mechanical royalties owed to US songwriters and publishers. Comparing Spotify's reports to the Mechanical Licensing Collective for the fourth quarters of 2023 and 2025, Billboard found the blended mechanical per-stream rate for paid subscriber tiers fell by roughly 51%, while the total dollar amount paid for that licence dropped about 45%. The findings matter because they put figures to the National Music Publishers' Association's claim that bundling by Spotify and Amazon has cost publishers and writers close to $500 million in lost mechanical payments since 2024.

The per-stream rate fell from about $0.00068 in Q4 2023 to roughly $0.00033 in Q4 2025, while Spotify's mechanical payments dropped from about $97.3 million to $53.3 million; the gap between the two percentages reflects a rise of nearly 19.3 billion streams over the period. Spotify has acknowledged a potential €410 million ($471 million) liability tied to a Mechanical Licensing Collective lawsuit. The issue is expected to feature heavily in the Copyright Royalty Board's Phono V rate proceedings covering 2028 to 2032. Separately, new direct deals Spotify has struck for video and lyrics rights are generating larger-than-expected payments, though the NMPA stresses these cover different rights and do not close the bundling shortfall.