How do I receive royalties for my music?
Your music is now available across all major platforms, and people worldwide are streaming and purchasing it. Now comes the exciting part — getting paid for your hard work.
To receive a royalty report, we’ll provide a form for you to fill out. Once submitted, we’ll forward it to the stores. After a few days, the reports will be compiled and shared with you. When your earnings reach the $50 threshold, you can withdraw your royalties directly to your local bank account at the Payoneer parallel exchange rate upon request.
Important Note: Streaming platforms process new royalties 45–75 days after your release goes live and starts receiving streams. For example, if your music was streamed in January, the royalties for those streams would typically become available by March 15th or April, depending on the digital store. Your earnings will be communicated to you upon request.
Estimated Payment Per Stream Across Digital Music Platforms as at 2018.
Below are the closest and most recent estimates of per-stream payouts from platforms like Spotify, Apple Music, and Amazon Music.
Note: These figures are approximate and should not be considered the exact payment rates for each DSP. They are based on available data, research, and industry trends, and actual earnings may vary depending on factors such as location, subscription type, and listener engagement.
The royalty payment per play of each streaming service is not set in stone. The revenue from one stream varies based on factors such as whether the listener is a premium account subscriber or free ad-supported user, and what country the listener is in.
This is the most recent accurate data we could find from Digital Music News. Calculated based on average streaming data from artists, indie labels and various published sources.
Jay-Z’s beleaguered TIDAL remains a top player, at least in terms of payouts.
Jay-Z’s streaming music platform, TIDAL, has remained embroiled in multiple controversies. These include accusations of hacking users’ accounts to inflate Beyoncé and Kanye West’s total streams.
Nevertheless, the service had remained friendly to artists. But the service reportedly paid out $0.01284 per stream annually. That number has fallen slightly to $0.0125, according to more recent data. Artists on TIDAL now need 117,760 total plays to earn $1,472.
Jay-Z’s streaming music service reportedly loses $6.67 per user with an annual loss of $28 million.
Apple Music takes third place.
How much does Apple Music pay per stream? Historically, Apple Music has paid artists much better than its streaming music rival, Spotify.
Back 2017, the service paid $0.0064 per stream. That number had risen to $0.00783. Now, Apple Music has upped its rate further: in April of 2021, the platform announced that its artists would receive a royalty rate of 1 cent ($0.01) per stream.
Artists on Apple Music would need around 147,200 plays to earn the US monthly minimum wage amount.
With Apple closely guarding its user metrics, it remains unclear how much Apple Music loses each year on the service as well as per user.
Deezer falls to fourth place.
Launching several years ago in the US, French-based streaming music service Deezer still doesn’t have an established presence in the country.
Back in 2018, at $0.0056, the service topped GPM in terms of payouts. By 2019, Deezer paid $0.00624. That number has slowly risen to $0.0064, placing it right behind GPM. Artists will need 230,000 total plays to earn the US monthly minimum wage amount.
Deezer recently reported an annual loss of $27 million, losing $1.69 per user. Deezer reportedly has 16 million users, with around 9.12 million — or 57% — paying for the service.
Amazon falls behind.
As with Napster, Apple, and Google, Amazon closely guards its user metrics.
Earlier this year, The Trichordist found Amazon paid indie artists $0.0074 per play. That number has now plummeted to $0.00402, placing it just above Spotify. Artists will now need around 366,169 total streams to earn the monthly minimum wage amount in the US.
How much do artists make per stream on Spotify?
Spotify’s per-stream rate ranks as one of the worst, and it appears to be falling. According to the latest data, Spotify pays most artists between $.003 and $.005 (one-third of a penny to one-half of a penny) for each stream.
Back in December 2019, you may have read our report on cellist Zoe Keating’s receiving a $753 check from Spotify, as compensation for 206,011 streams. Rounding up, the sum represents a per-stream royalty rate of $0.0037 — down from Keating’s 2018 Spotify royalty rate of about $0.0054. Separately, mechanical royalty firm Audiam also suggested that Spotify royalties have decreased despite rising subscriber counts and revenue.
Of course, there are plenty of Spotify alternatives. But as of 2022, Spotify remains the largest streaming music platform worldwide — which means you have little choice but to play ball with them.
Pandora continues to struggle.
Back in 2018, despite having the second-highest amount of total users in the US, Pandora paid artists $0.0011 per play. By 2019, the digital radio service slightly increased that rate to $0.00134. The company has now settled at paying artists $0.00133 on Pandora Premium. Artists will now need 1,106,767 total plays on Pandora Premium just to earn $1,472.
YouTube pulls a U-Turn.
Historically, YouTube hasn’t ever been an artist-friendly platform, thanks to its horrendous payouts.
In 2017, the popular video platform paid $0.0006 per play. By 2019, the company had increased its rate to $0.00074.
But YouTube executives have now pulled a U-Turn, choosing to pay artists $0.00069. To earn the monthly minimum wage amount in the US, artists will need around 2,133,333 total plays on YouTube.
The video platform reportedly loses $174 million each year, with loss per user calculated at $0.17.
