The industry has seen a huge shift towards streaming over the last decade, so releasing your music online on major platforms like Spotify is an essential way to get it to the ears (and circles) of everyday listeners.
In 2024, streaming stands as a primary source of revenue for musicians, constituting a significant portion of their income. But How much does Spotify pay per stream? Let’s find out.
How much does Spotify pay per stream?
When you listen to a song on Spotify, the artist typically gets paid around 0.3 to 0.5 cents per stream. This might not seem like much, but it’s actually part of a revenue split arrangement where about 70% of the money goes to the artist or rights holder, and the remaining 30% goes to Spotify. So every time you hit play, you’re helping support the musicians you love!
Remember: Song rights holders may be involved. Publishers, songwriters and owners of master recordings (i.e. artists and/or labels if signed by them).
How Spotify counts streams
Towards the end of 2023, Spotify announced some big changes to the way it registers its stream count – which includes how artists get paid.
As of 2024, for tracks on Spotify to start generating royalties, they need to have reached a minimum of 1,000 streams on the platform. This means that every time a user listens to a song for at least 30 seconds, it counts as one stream towards this threshold. Once a track hits that mark, it starts earning royalties for the artist or rights holder.
Starting in 2024, artists will need to reach at least a unique audience for their tracks to qualify for royalty payments. This new rule is introduced to prevent bots and other artificial streaming methods from occurring.
Spotify Royalty Calculator
So how can you find out how much you can earn from Spotify streams?
Well, the exact amount that artists can generate through their music streams is far from record information.
But if you want to get a general idea of how much you could potentially earn from Spotify streams, let our Spotify royalty calculator do the math for you!
Important: The royalties estimated by this calculator may not be entirely accurate. This is an estimate – based on US data. Many factors affect streaming royalties and this calculator should be used as a guide only.
As we’ve mentioned before – it’s impossible to determine how much you should or can earn per stream based on Spotify’s own privacy and the multitude of factors that affect your stream rate.
Don’t worry too much about the specific numbers; instead, think about how you can make the most money from streaming your music on Spotify.
How does Spotify streaming pay work?
Spotify, along with many other streaming services, uses a “pro-rata” or “platform-centric” distribution model.
This implies that the revenue generated and distributed to individual artists who release music on the platform is divided based on the following four factors:
- Spotify’s Total Streaming Revenue Pool
- Negotiated global payment as a percentage of that income
- The total number of times songs have been played on the platform.
- The number of streams you have on the Platform
So in the world of streaming, there is no such thing as an all-revenue pool.
Instead, there are separate buckets for each type of subscription, each local market, country, etc. And the diversity of streams suggests a straightforward fact: not every stream holds the same value.
For every artist putting out music, the rate of pay per stream remains consistent because numerous factors influence overall revenue.
Let’s delve further and examine the three primary ones for Spotify.
What is Spotify ‘Pay Per Stream’?
A ‘pay-per-stream’ denotes the sum of money or payment rate received for each instance a song is played on any digital streaming platform.
Music streaming generates 2 types of royalties.
- Mechanical Royalty
- Performance Royalties
Exactly, for artists who release their music on these platforms, the pay per stream represents the amount they earn for each time one of their tracks or songs is streamed by a listener.
And with the number of streaming service subscriptions growing by nearly 25% in the US between 2019 – 2020, it’s more crucial than ever for artists to distribute their music across all major platforms, including Spotify, Deezer, Amazon, and Apple Music.
What might affect Spotify royalty rates?
The payment per stream on Spotify can vary from artist to artist. Here’s why.
Spotify stream rate is affected by 3 main factors:
1. Who do you split with?
Spotify does not pay royalties to artists based on any rights agreement between Spotify and the artist.
Instead, the music royalties you will receive as an artist on the platform are based on your contract with your music distributor or label.
This means that the amount you get paid per stream on Spotify is directly affected by the music distributor you’re working with (and how big a slice of the pie that distributor gets!).
At Ditto Music, we want you to see as much money as possible for your stream. This is why we operate on a 0% commission rate basis, meaning you keep 100% of all royalties for every stream of your music.
2. Your audience’s country of origin
Believe it or not, where your listeners are paying attention matters.
Not every country pays the same amount for streaming on Spotify.
For instance, in the US, listeners will pay $0.0039 per stream, whereas in Portugal, they will only pay $0.0018.
If you have a global audience from various countries, this could significantly influence your pay per stream rate.
Given that some countries offer lower rates per stream, it becomes even more crucial to seek out and apply for any available music grants in your region. Stay up to date with opportunities on our Music Funding Map.
3. Plan your audience’s Spotify account
Spotify operates 2 types of subscription plans for users who play music on the platform. There are differences in payment between free accounts and premium accounts (which require a paid subscription) on Spotify.
As paying listeners, Spotify Premium listeners bring more money to the platform when listening, compared to free listeners.
Which also means Spotify offers better royalties when premium users stream your music.
Also Read: How To Download Songs on Spotify
How to Make More Money From Spotify Streams
Streaming your music on Spotify is just one form of streaming income.
While Spotify may be the most popular music streaming service among listeners, millions of people use other streaming services as well. This means you’ll maximize your streaming earnings by releasing music on as many platforms and online stores as possible.
Having a presence on multiple music streaming platforms is always a surefire way to gain a following and reach new audiences!
Playlists serve as the predominant method for music consumption on streaming platforms. This includes both curated playlists offered by the platform and those created by individual users.
Which means playlisting your music is another way to make more money than Spotify streams, by placing your tracks in a prime position for the algorithm and more listeners.
Ultimately, the more streams and fans you can amass on Spotify, the higher your revenue will be in the form of music royalties.
Check out the vid below to discover 11 unique strategies for increasing your streams on Spotify as an independent artist.
As well as making money from music side hustles and streaming royalties, selling your music online also offers other opportunities – like building a global audience base, creating playlists, or even scouting for sync opportunities. – making it a huge pool of unlimited potential. For new, aspiring artists!
