Music artists all across the world are working hard and passionately on making great music. Once they complete the music, It’s time to release it for the world to hear. Generally, a first stop for artists to get their music out into the world is to upload it and release it on the music streaming platform, Spotify.
With that said, a very important business question that music artists should be asking themselves is, how much does Spotify pay per stream? In this blog post we get into the specifics of that question and at the bottom of this post we’ll leave you with a video of rapper Snoop Dog sharing his opinion on music streaming platforms. It’s shocking, to say the least.
WHAT IS SPOTIFY?
Spotify is a Swedish owned, music and media services provider streaming platform. It was founded on April 23, 2006, by Daniel Ek and Martin Lorentzon. As the numbers currently stand Spotify is one of the largest streaming service providers on the planet. They have over 433 million monthly active users, with 188 million paying subscribers according to figures released in June, 2022.
Spotify’s reach is a global one. It is available in the Americas, in most of Europe and Africa, Asia and Oceania. It’s in a total of 184 markets. Spotify services are available on most devices. Such devices include Windows, macOS, IOS, Android and other digital media players (e.g., Roku).
THE AMOUNT SPOTIFY PAYS PER STREAM
As the numbers currently stand Spotify is among the lowest paying streaming platforms per stream. Spotify pays a measly $0.0043 per stream. As rapper and Death Row owner Snoop Dogg eloquently puts it, “it’s a fraction of a penny.” Snoop stated in his Drink Champs interview, “Nobody in here can tell you what a stream ads up to. It’s a fraction of a penny. It’s a third of a penny.”
Snoop Dogg’s outrage is understandable. At $0.0043 per song stream on Spotify you will need a total of 229 streams to make a whole dollar. Snoop Dogg continues, “So you can get 100 million streams and you don’t make a million dollars.” Appalled, Snoop Dog states, “What the fu%k is that?”
HOW MUCH DOES SPOTIFY PAY FOR 100 MILLION STREAMS?
We did the research to confirm what Snoop Dogg says that you can get 100 million streams and not make 1 million dollars. We can affirmatively state that is 100% correct. Think about it, that’s 100 million times your record is played and yet you do not make $1 million dollars.
However, the exact number of how much you make on 1 million streams is challenging to come across because there are different factors that impact the exact number of how much 100 million streams on Spotify are worth. The reason is because certain factors can increase or decrease the value of a stream for a music artist.
Use the third party stream calculator, Spotify Royalties Calculator to get a better estimate of how much money you will make from your streams on Spotify.
PS: GENERALLY, MOST STREAM PLATFORMS CONSIDER A SINGLE STREAM TO BE AT LEAST 30 SECONDS OF A SONG PLAYED. THEY DON’T EXPLAIN WHY THAT IS. HOWEVER, IT’S THOUGHT TO BE AN ARBITRARY PICKING.
FACTORS THAT IMPACT THE VALUE OF A MUSIC STREAM
THE STREAMING PLATFORM A very obvious factor as to how much an artist makes per music stream is the streaming platform itself. Different music platforms pay differently per stream. As it currently stands, Napster is the highest paying music streaming platform per stream. Napster currently pays $0.0188 per stream. With Napster you will need 53 streams to make $1 versus Spotify’s 229 streams to make $1.
THE STREAMER’S LOCATION Another crucial factor as to how much an artist will make per stream on Spotify is dependent on the streamer’s location. Spotify pays a different streaming fee depending on the country the song is streamed in. For example, Spotify may pay $0.0178 per stream in one country and as low as $0.0005 in another country. Consult the Spotify website for more details.
THE STREAMER’S SUBSCRIPTION PACKAGE In addition, the streamer’s subscription package counts towards how much Spotify will pay per stream. Because Spotify has a paid subscription music streaming option, It pays artists more per stream being heard on a paid subscription versus what it pays when heard by free users.
CUSTOMIZED DEALS Certain artists, based on their popularity, the number of listeners they draw and the backing of major music labels, can and do earn more per stream than other artists.
CONCLUSION
And as always we like to close with a saying, quote or adage and today’s is from rapper Snoop Dog (video below): You want me to keep giving you my music, but somebody making all the money and it ain’t me. I can’t afford to keep doing that. I want to create an avenue where I can show people how to not always go through the slave trade, but create our own trade. Where we can engage with our own fans that buy our music.”.
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