Three Lions going to number one in the charts made its songwriter just £6,000, the Mirror has learned. Artists earn a fraction of a penny when a song is played on Spotify and other global, multi-billion pound streaming giants - much less than they would be paid for radio plays and CD sales.
And even artists with top 20 albums and major label record deals under their belt can struggle to make ends meet - with one telling the Mirror: "My mum pays for my cat food." Lightning Seeds songwriter Ian Broudie told friends that when the England anthem topped the charts during the 2018 World Cup, he earned just a few thousand pounds.
Read more on mirror.co.uk