Spotify: This is how much money musicians get per stream

On Spotify, musicians get paid per stream. But we often hear that the remuneration is so low that artists can’t make a living from it

How much money musicians get per stream on Spotify

Each song played on Spotify earns musicians different amounts of money. These even differ depending on the country in which the user listens to Spotify. The royalties are much lower than you probably thought.

• In Germany, musicians currently receive 3,398 euros per 1 million streams on Spotify, as igroovemusic has determined. This corresponds to 0.0033 euros for one stream, 34 cents for 100 streams and 3.39 euros for 1,000 streams.

• The most money is paid to artists in Iceland: they receive 6,376.23 euros per 1 million streams. Switzerland and Finland follow directly behind. The USA is in the middle of the pack with 3,881.01 euros per million streams

• Musicians in Iraq receive the least money. They receive just 175.08 euros in royalties from Spotify for 1 million clicks.

• For smaller bands that do not receive several million streams for their songs, the remuneration from Spotify is therefore not enough to live on. More than a little extra income is not possible here

• Important: From 2024, Spotify will have different rules for remuneration, according to the British online magazine “Music Business Worldwide”. In future, the streaming service will no longer pay for songs with fewer than 1000 plays

Earning opportunities with other music platforms

Spotify is known as the music platform with the most subscribers. However, when it comes to royalties for musicians, Spotify is by no means in first place. Here are some of the other platforms and the money they pay to their musicians

• Napster is one of the first online music platforms and one of the better paying providers in the industry. According to qmx.de, artists receive 19,000 dollars for 1 million streams.

• At Apple Music, users of Apple products quickly become paying subscribers. This makes it possible to pay out as much as 7,830 dollars per 1 million streams.

• The online store giant Amazon Music offers its musicians only slightly better conditions than Spotify: here you get 4,020 dollars for 1 million clicks.