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How much do you get paid per stream on Spotify, Apple Music and Deezer

By Maxence Pepin

03 May, 2024

Getting paid for streaming your music on platforms such as Spotify, Apple Music, and Deezer can be a great way to generate revenue from your music. But how much do you actually get paid for each stream? To answer this question, we need to understand the differences in streaming royalties for each platform, calculate your total royalties, and see how you can better monetize your music and maximize your earning potential.

Understanding the Difference in Streaming Royalties

When it comes to streaming royalties, there are a number of key factors to consider. Firstly, the amount of money you get paid per stream varies from platform to platform. Secondly, the royalties are also affected by the number of users on the platform, the type of subscription users have and the location they're streaming from.

For example, on Spotify, you will generally receive between $0.006 to $0.0084 per stream, with the exact amount changing depending on the user’s subscription plan type (Premium vs Free). On Apple Music and Deezer, you can expect to receive slightly more, between $0.0072 and $0.0097 per stream. It is important to understand that even though you may receive more money per stream on Apple Music and Deezer, these platforms generally attract fewer users than Spotify.

In addition, the royalties you receive can also be affected by the country the user is streaming from. For example, streaming royalties in the US are typically higher than in other countries. This is because the US has a larger music market and more users streaming music. Therefore, if you are an artist who is popular in the US, you may be able to earn more money from streaming royalties than if you were popular in other countries.

Calculating Your Royalties from Streaming

Calculating your total royalties from streaming can be quite a complex task. Firstly, you need to look at how many streams you were paid for in total from the platforms. This is easy if the platform provides comprehensive analytics, but if it doesn’t then this can be quite tricky. You also need to take into account other factors like subscription types, number of users, and location.

Once you have determined your total streams and royalties per platform, then you can calculate your total royalties by multiplying the two values together. For example, if you received 10,000 streams on Spotify at a rate of $0.006 per stream, then your total royalties would be $60. Releese Distribution Cloud displays how much you earn per 1,000 streams, per platform, per country, per month in an effort to make this accounting easy.

Pros and Cons of Streaming Platforms

Despite the fact that streaming platforms such as Spotify, Apple Music and Deezer offer great potential for earning revenue from your music, there are also a few drawbacks that you should be aware of. Firstly, these platforms generally require fairly high monthly subscription fees for users to access premium features such as unlimited skips or higher sound quality audio.

In addition, because most streaming services take a large portion of their profits from subscription fees and advertising revenue, they tend to pay less in music royalties than other digital distribution services such as iTunes or Beatport. This means that even though you may have more potential listeners on streaming platforms, they offer less in terms of generating consistent revenue.

Maximizing Your Earnings Through Streaming

To maximize your earnings through streaming you should look at ways to generate additional income from other sources. If you use YouTube for music promotion for example, you can monetize your videos using ads or affiliate links. You can also create exclusive content for streaming platforms such as exclusive interviews or artist endorsements that may lead to additional income.

More broadly speaking, trying to increase your number of streams is also a great way to increase your revenue. This means that promoting your music or artist profile online using social media platforms such as Twitter and Instagram will greatly help with getting more streams. You should also look into collaborations with other artists or getting song placements in movies or TV shows. By increasing the exposure of your music, you can give yourself a bigger platform to get more streams which results in more revenue.

Tips for Monetizing Your Music on Streaming Platforms

There are a few simple tips to increase your revenue on streaming platforms. Firstly, ensure that your tracks are properly tagged with the correct information so that they can be accurately categorized by the respective platform algorithms.

Secondly, create compelling and optimized playlists that showcase your music as well as other similar genres. This will help increase exposure and attract more potential listeners who may decide to become paying subscribers.

Tips for Increasing Streams to Increase Revenue

To increase the number of streams and thus the amount of money earned through streaming services it is important to come up with creative ways of promoting one’s content. Making sure one’s music is included in popular playlists created by other users as well as creating one’s own could help with this.  Additionally SEO techniques and analytics should be used in order to figure out which countries or geographical regions one’s songs should be promoted and marketed in order to get maximum streams.

Other than that collaborations with other artists popular in a certain region or genre could also lead to increase in streams as these artists’ fan bases may listen to one’s music as well when given the opportunity. The use of social media can also be very beneficial here as one can use it as a means of direct promotion by broadcasting snippets and excerpts of one’s tracks as well as responding directly to comments made about them.

How to Choose the Right Streaming Platform for You

Choosing the right streaming platform depends on a lot of factors. Firstly look into which platform has the highest listener base within the genre you are creating music in. Secondly review the potential earnings per stream you may have on each platform - some offer more money while having fewer users than others.

You should also consider whether you're comfortable with possible ads playing when people listen - some platforms allow this while others do not. Finally consider if there are any special features or tools offered by a particular platform that may help capture an audience or build a fan base.

Conclusion: Maximizing Your Earning Potential Through Streaming

Streaming platforms like Spotify, Apple Music, and Deezer provide artists with an opportunity make money from their music but understanding how much money can be made from each platform is not always straightforward. In general, streaming services pay out relatively lower amounts per stream compared to some other digital distribution services like iTunes or SoundCloud but have significantly more users. Therefore the key is to maximize user exposure while focusing on creative methods of monetization such as exclusive content and collaborations.

Overall understanding how much money you get paid per stream and how to best monetize your music on streaming platforms can be difficult but incredibly rewarding for any artist looking for an additional source of income.

Maxence Pepin
Written byMaxence Pepin

Maxence has amassed over 50 million streams as an independent artist before working as a business development manager for an indie dance record label.