How much does an artist earn from 1,000 streams on Spotify? Is streaming alone a viable option for independent artists?

We recently covered the pay rate per stream on Spotify. Unfortunately the answer isn’t as simple as one figure. When a song is streamed one time, this will not equal a certain amount of money ending up in the artists pocket, that’s not how streaming works. The pay rate on Spotify varies based on many factors such as what major labels have negotiated with Spotify, the streamers type of account (Free or Premium) and location, not to mention the cut taken by a label or distributor.

Hypebot calculated the average per-stream payout from indie artists on Spotify between $0.003 and $0.005. If we take this number and times by one thousand, we end up with $3 – $5 per 1,000 streams.

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