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The perfect Spotify consumer; how much an artist makes

2015 December 9
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by Mike Vial

At $10 a month, Spotify costs $120 a year (+tax) for a subscription. 70% of that goes to rights holders. ($84)

As artists and consumers, we often ask, how much does Spotify pay per stream? Spotify admits it doesn’t actually pay per stream, but that’s the only way for us on the outside to really get an estimation.

If you looked at your “Year in Spotify” data as a consumer, here’s something to consider: How much are artists making from your streams? It takes 150 streams to equal one single sale; 1500 to equal an album.

Spotify says the average pay out is $0.006-0.008 per stream. If $84 dollars goes to rights holders, that means 875-1167 streams per month is the sweet spot for an artist to earn the average rate.

If you stream more than that a month, artists will earn less. Spotify isn’t going to pay more than 70% to rights holders. So if you stream 1750 tracks a month, artists might earn about $0.004 per stream.

However, what if consumer only consumes 400-500 streams that month? Does an artist make more? I never see a payout more than $0.005. Shouldn’t an artist be earning $0.01 or more if I don’t stream a lot? I’ve never seen a payment that high as an artist!

What if I only play ONE artist all year! Does that artist earn $84?

Something does seem right to me.

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Either way, niche artists don’t make much from streaming. Time is against an artist.

I asked my friends how many streams their top artists got from them. No one was even close to half of 1500 streams for one artist in a year. Most were in the 200 streams range. Plus, if they are using an AD-tier, it might take triple the streams to equal a sale.

 

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