These royalties go to the owner of the master recording, often the record label, when a song is streamed. Artists may also receive a portion of master royalties if they retain ownership of their recordings.

These royalties are paid to songwriters and publishers for the composition and lyrics of a song each time it is streamed.

These royalties are paid to performing rights organizations (PROs), which collect and distribute royalties to songwriters, composers, and publishers for the public performance of their music on streaming platforms.

Streaming royalties are typically calculated based on the number of streams a song receives. The exact formula can vary depending on the streaming platform, but it often considers factors like the total revenue generated and the proportion of an artist’s or songwriter’s streams compared to the total streams on the platform.

Streaming royalties are typically paid out to rights holders on a per-stream basis, which means that artists and songwriters receive a fraction of a cent for each stream of their music. The exact payout rates can vary widely and depend on factors like the user’s subscription tier (free or premium) and the country where the stream occurs.

While streaming has become the dominant way people consume music, some artists and songwriters have expressed concerns about the relatively low per-stream payouts, particularly for independent and emerging artists. The industry continues to debate how to fairly compensate creators in the streaming era.

Streaming royalties are usually collected and distributed through collecting societies, record labels, and digital music distributors, who then pay the artists, songwriters, and rights holders based on their respective agreements.

Streaming platforms have a global reach, allowing music creators to earn royalties from listeners worldwide. However, the rates and regulations may differ from one region to another.

Streaming royalties have reshaped the music industry, leading to changes in revenue models and the way artists promote and monetise their music. They have also influenced music consumption patterns andmusic discovery. How Much Do You Earn From Streaming? How much does Spotify pay per stream?

● The streaming platform

● The type of streaming platform (On-demand or Non-interactive)

● How much of the song was streamed (The royalty is less if only half the song is played)

● The type of account the fan uses (Free or Premium)

● The “pay-per-stream” rates per country

How much does Spotify pay per stream? It can be a bit difficult to answer how much an artist will make per stream due to the multitude of factors involved such as the “pay-per-stream” rate which can vary between countries.

Furthermore, most platforms don’t specifically announce how much they pay to rights holders per stream. How annoying! To further complicate matters, there are different breakdowns for artists signed with indie labels, self-releasing artists, and artists affiliated with a major label.

However, we’ve done our research and have found the closest estimates possible for some of
the most popular streaming platforms out there.

We’ve also created our very own music streaming royalty calculator to help you calculate streaming royalties of your own.

You must all be asking it by now… If Spotify is the largest streaming platform of them all, how much do you earn from Spotify streams?

It is estimated that Spotify pay £0.0031 per stream.

That means an artist would need roughly 366,000 streams on a track just to make minimum wage.

That’s crazy!
We at iStream Music have created our very own Spotify royalty calculator to help you estimate how much you can earn per stream on your own songs.

Access it above!

Apple Music
Apple Music pays roughly £0.0050 per stream. That’s more than Spotify – Great news for those of you that have a strong presence on Apple Music! This is likely due to the fact that Apple Music doesn’t offer a free subscription membership, unlike Spotify. This allows more money to be paid to the artists.

However, Apple Music has a considerable lower subscription rate than Spotify at just over 60 million people.

You may receive more money per stream at Apple Music but that may be overshadowed by the volume of streams you may receive from Spotify.

Take a look at our Apple Music royalty payment calculator below to see how much you could earn from your music.

Although it’s not the biggest streaming service when compared to the likes of Apple Music or even YouTube; SoundCloud is still a contender for making music royalty income.

Paying roughly £0.0019 per stream, SoundCloud is placed very low on the comparison table. It’s also more difficult to receive royalties from this platform as artists have to be part of the SoundCloud partner program in order to even start monitoring their music.

That being said, this platform does have its place in the streaming world, proving very popular with indie artists and beat makers.

Use our SoundCloud music royalty calculator below to estimate how much you could make from this platform.

YouTube is the second largest search engine in the world. That’s staggering to think; especially when its content is solely video based! There’s no doubt that people of all agesuse this platform to digest music and other forms of media on a daily basis. So, it would be silly not to have your music thrown into this mix!

However, YouTube only pays a small £0.00046 per view. Furthermore, your YouTube account must have at least 1,000 subscribers and 4,000 watch hours in the last 12 months before you can even monetise your account. Roughly speaking, you’d need 2.1 million plays on your video before you even make minimum wage.

But, fear not! There are plenty of other ways to make money utilising YouTube. Artists can also receive a royalty thanks to YouTube’s Content ID algorithm. Basically, every time your song is played or  on a video, the rights holders is eligible for a small royalty.

Every little helps! Our music royalty calculator can help you calculate streaming royalties from YouTube with just a few clicks of a button.