Have you ever heard of Apple Music, Spotify, Google Music, or SoundCloud? These are just a handful of streaming platforms that pay artists when their music is played.
To make things easier for you, I decided to do all the research for you and compile it into this blog. Here you will find all the information you need to have a clear understanding of how you will get paid from these sites and sites like them.
Let’s get started with how much each site pays per stream.
- $0.019 per stream. Tidal.
- $0.01284 per stream. Apple Music.
- $0.00783 per stream. Deezer.
- $0.0064 per stream. Spotify.
- $0.00437 per stream. Amazon.
- $0.00402 per stream. Pandora.
- $0.00133 per stream. YouTube.
- $0.05 per stream. Goknack.io
Not as much as you thought? Or about what you expected?
Either way, it is not quite enough to make a living full-time as a music artist in today’s world. With inflation at an all-time high and rent pricing as much as a mortgage, you will need a lot of streams to be able to afford groceries.
At the bottom of the group of streaming platforms, I listed one Goknack.io, although new, pays more than all the rest. At $0.05 per stream, that at least will put some gas in the tank to drive you to the studio to record the next #1 hit! I am not saying that it is impossible to make a living by just streaming payouts, but it sure does take a lot using some of the other sites to get you an actual living wage.
As I mentioned, I ran all the numbers so you didn’t have to, and here are a few more to think about. How much will it take you to get to the minimum wage in the U.S.? $15,080 a year, not taking out taxes.
- $0.019 per stream. Tidal. 793,685 streams
- $0.01284 per stream. Apple Music. 1,174,455 streams
- $0.00783 per stream. Deezer. 1,925,926 stream
- $0.0064 per stream. Spotify. 2,356,250 streams
- $0.00437 per stream. Amazon. 3,450,801 streams
- $0.00402 per stream. Pandora. 3,751,244 streams
- $0.00133 per stream. YouTube. 11,338,346 streams
- $0.05 per stream. Goknack.io – 301,600 streams
What would I do looking at these numbers? I would upload my music to every platform I could and hope that my fans would pick the platform they like the most and listen to my music. If I needed to prioritize any of these platforms, I would pick the ones that pay me the most per stream, which are Gokanck.io at $0.05 and Tidal at $0.01.
There you have it, my final thoughts. Take this information as you will. I am not an expert nor do I charge for my time, so my advice is based on experience and of course blood, sweat, and tears.
