How Much Do Music Streaming Platforms Pay Per Stream?

Updated: Aug 1

First of all, it is difficult to estimate exactly how much Music Streaming Platforms pay per stream. Most of these platforms do not clearly state how much they pay artists as there are no fixed rates.

There are several Music Streaming Platforms in the market such as Spotify, Amazon Music, Apple Music, YouTube Music etc. Each platform has its unique pricing model. Do note that every Digital Music Store (streaming or Download) has its own ‘deduction fee’.

Music Streaming Platforms Pay Per Stream

Download Stores

Since it is much easier to calculate how much an artist can earn from Download Stores (Calculations for Streaming Platforms are complicated, which we will show later), let’s look at the Apple iTunes Download Store.

Example

let’s assume a user/listener pays U$1.00 to download a song from the iTunes store. Apple will take some % of it, but we do not know exactly how much it is. Let’s say they take 30%, which means they will pay 70% (= U$0.70) to the Music Distributor (CD Baby, Ditto Music, TuneCore etc.).
Now, some Distributor pays 100% of royalties to their client by charging an annual fee, whereas some Distributor takes a few % as fees. For info, CD Baby takes 9% of the royalties and gives the clients 91% of it. So, if an Artist is distributing via CD Baby, he/she will get 91% of U$0.70 = U$0.637. This is true only if the tracks are distributed directly via CD Baby. If the Artist is distributing via a Label, they will take a huge % of what they get from the Music Distributor.
On average, Labels take about 70% of what they get. This means, that out of the U$0.637, the Label will take U$0.446, leaving only U$0.191 for the Artist.
Based on the above calculations, an Artist may get around 63.7% of what a listener pays to the Digital Music Stores if his/her music is distributed directly and 19.1% if his/her music is distributed via a Label.

Streaming Stores

When comes to streaming stores, how much an artist earns depends on where their music is being streamed (Territory) and whether the listener’s subscription is free or paid. Since streaming platforms use different subscription models, you can not come up with the payout calculation. In the case of streaming platforms with Ads-enabled free streaming with premium plans, the average payout is calculated by the sum of revenue from subscriptions and Ads.

The listener’s location plays an important factor. For example, a Spotify user in the US pays U$9.99 per month for the premium plan whereas a user in the Philippines pays U$2.7 per month for the premium plan. So if your streams come from ‘Low-Tier Subscription’ countries, then what you get per stream will be much less. I have made a table (end of this blog) which shows how much I get per stream.

Let’s look at some of the big Music Streaming Services

Amazon Music

Amazon Music Unlimited has been reported to pay artists about U$0.004 per play, which is around the average for digital streaming platforms. However Amazon Music Prime is a lower-priced subscription option for users. Streams from these have a separate payout calculation, which roughly amounts to $0.00139 per stream.

Apple Music

Only Apple has publically stated that they pay an average of $0.01 per stream to artists, but this number is nowhere near what Independent Artists like me and you earn per stream. Do not be deceived by that number.

Deezer

The company stated that they want to pay artists fairly through their user-centric payment system called “Pay who you play”. Because of this, when a paid subscriber listens to only one artist per month, their entire subscription fee will go to that artist (with a minor platform fee reduction).

Example:

A user/listener in the US has a Deezer Premium Subscription which costs U$9.99 and he only streamed 1 song from 1 Artist. And let’s assume the following: Deezer takes 5% of the revenue (95% of the revenue is given to the Distributor = U$9.49).
The distributor takes 9% of the revenue which is U$0.854 and the artist will get the remaining U$8.636. In this very best-case scenario, that particular artist got U$8.636 per stream. However, this will never happen in real life.
A Premium Subscriber usually listens to at least 20 tracks a day which translates to 600 tracks a month. With this scenario, an artist will get only U$0.014 per stream.

Pandora

Pandora pays artists differently depending on whether the streams are Interactive or Non-Interactive. Pandora pays artists as little as $0.0013 per play.

Spotify

Despite being the most popular Streaming Platform, Spotify has a rather negative reputation for handing out artist payouts. While Spotify is yet to provide details about how much they pay per stream, a Business Insider report found that artists earn as little as $0.0033 per stream.

How much I am getting per stream? Real-world example!

I distribute my Singles / EPs / Albums via different distributors (CD Baby, Ditto Music, Soundrop). From their monthly Royalty Statements (in .csv format), I managed to figure out what I am getting on average on different Music Streaming Platforms. Since I am from India, I have also calculated approximately ‘per stream rate’ in INR after deducting Bank transaction Charges and Forex Charges.