How much money do you get for 1000 streams on Spotify, Apple Music and other music streaming services?

How much money is 1000 streams? An artist on a streaming service makes between $3 to $5 for 1000 streams. That’s based on some estimates. But a more accurate answer would be – it depends.

How much is a stream worth?

Unhelpfully, how much a stream is worth is complicated. Music streaming services pay out on a pro-rata basis, which means subscription payments from users go into a big pot that gets divvied up based on the percentage of the total streams on the platform that each artist has.

Payments are also influenced by factors like which streaming platform you’re on and in which territory, and what subscription the listener pays. There’s also the question of whether the artist being streamed is signed to a label who might take a large cut of their revenue. Ultimately, each artist will have a unique pay per-stream.

What streaming service pays the most?

RouteNote music distribution online get paid make money artists independent earnings

In April 2021 Apple Music announced it pays artists $0.01 a stream. Spotify launched a website to spell out their payments, Loud and Clear, but said they couldn’t calculate how much a stream is worth. We explored the Spotify average pay rate here – it’s around $0.003 to $0.005 a stream. So, for 1000 streams an artist would earn about $3 to $5.

Is streaming bad for artists?

The amount an artist earns from people streaming your music might not seem inspiring, but releasing your music onto streaming platforms is a vital part of being an artist. Streaming offers the opportunity for any artist, anywhere, to be discovered by millions of potential listeners, without needing a record label.

Conversations have been started in recent years about the fairness of streaming payouts for artists, with a government inquiry into the economics of streaming happening in the UK just this year. SoundCloud made moves this year towards a user-centric payment system for artists, meaning listener’s subscription money goes only to the artists they stream, rather than into the pro-rata pot.

How to make money releasing music

While streaming alone might not make you rich, one thing you can do is take control of your music to maximise your payments. Ticket sales and merchandise help to boost income for artists. Similarly, making smart promotional and distribution decisions is a must.

Does your music distributor get your music in front of the most listeners possible without charging you a fortune? At RouteNote we distribute music for free to all the major streaming platforms around the world, whilst also helping you monetise your music on social media.

When you sell your music with RouteNote you also avoid any unfair cuts that major record labels might take from your royalties. RouteNote’s free distribution doesn’t charge you for uploading your music and you keep a transparent 85% of revenue, with no hidden fees.

Find out more here and get your music online with RouteNote today.