After Spotify released its 2025 music results for Ukraine, it became clear that viral tracks like «Vrubai,» «Smaragdove Nebo,» and «Tvoya» have turned into a full-fledged business. Forbes estimates show that one superhit on streaming can bring Ukrainian artists tens of thousands of euros.
After Spotify released its 2025 music results for Ukraine, it became clear that viral tracks like «Vrubai,» «Smaragdove Nebo,» and «Tvoya» have turned into a full-fledged business. Forbes estimates show that one superhit on streaming can bring Ukrainian artists tens of thousands of euros.
In a major analysis by Forbes Ukraine, labels pomitni and Black Beats explain that streaming payments depend on the platform and country of the listener. By the end of 2024, a million streams on YouTube would bring in approximately 1,000–1,500 euros, on Apple Music — approximately 2,000–3,000 euros, and on Spotify — 600–800 euros. These ranges formed the basis for calculating the revenues of the most high-profile releases of 2025.
One of the main beneficiaries of the streaming boom is Drevo with the track «Smaragdove nebo». The song was released in late May 2025 and remained at the top of the Ukrainian charts for a long time. By the end of September, it had collected 60 million streams on YouTube and YouTube Music and another 6.5 million on Spotify. According to Forbes, this could have brought the author 60,000–90,000 euros from video services and an additional 5,200 euros from Spotify, not including other platforms.
Parfeniuk from «Vrubai» demonstrates how risky investments can pay off a hundredfold. The artist’s team invested over 16,000 euros in the recording, promo and video: approximately 2,500 euros went to sound production, almost 1,700 euros to promotion, and the rest to video production. From November 2024 to July 2025, the track collected 136 million plays and brought in approximately 98,700 euros, of which 54,800 euros were given by 64.5 million streams on YouTube and YouTube Music, and 71.3 million plays on other platforms generated another 43,900 euros.
An additional engine for all these stories is TikTok. The Parfeniuk team launched a dance challenge to «Vrubay», which users picked up: according to creative partner Oleksandr Stepenko, more than 191,000 videos were shot to the track. Alena Omargalieva also used similar virality: her «Tvoya» and «Muzhchyna» collected hundreds of thousands of videos and hundreds of millions of views on TikTok. In conjunction with streaming, this gave «Tvoya» approximately 18,900 euros in income, another more than 19,000 euros were brought by 25.7 million views of the clip on YouTube. «Muzhchyna» earned approximately 14,000 euros on platforms and almost 20,400 euros per video.
Behind each such hit is an entire industry: producers, video directors, and songwriters. According to Irina Horova, writing a track for a beginner costs from $500, for top-level artists — from $5,000 and above. Among those who consistently work with mainstream releases are Ivan Klymenko, Anton Kukri, BadWor7h, and other authors. As a result, streaming success looks not like a random shot, but as a product of systematic work: the right song, aggressive promotion on TikTok, and competent distribution across platforms turn millions of plays into very tangible amounts for Ukrainian artists.
Previously, dev.ua wrote about how investigators of the National Police of Ukraine declared suspicion against the director of a music label, who defrauded the heirs of a «famous musician» of almost 1.5 million hryvnias. According to «Hromadske», this is about the deceased musician Kuzma Skryabin (Andriy Kuzmenko).
