How much does Spotify pay per stream?

Spotify doesn't pay a fixed rate per stream

Spotify pays rights holders a share of its music revenue, split by each one's share of all streams that month, which Spotify calls "streamshare". It says it pays out roughly two thirds of every dollar its music earns. So a stream is worth more in a month with more revenue, and more from a paying listener in a high-price country than from a free listener elsewhere.

The per-stream figures you see everywhere are averages worked out afterwards: total payouts divided by streams. The latest big study, Duetti's Music Economics Report (January 2025, covering 2024), found these averages per 1,000 streams:

Spotify called those findings "unfounded" and says no service pays per stream. Treat them as planning figures, not rates. The calculator lets you change them.

Songs under 1,000 streams a year earn nothing on Spotify

Since April 2024, a track needs at least 1,000 streams in the past 12 months to earn recording royalties on Spotify, and a minimum number of different listeners that Spotify doesn't publish. Below that, its streams go to the tracks that qualify. If you release a lot of songs that each get a few hundred plays, they earn nothing there.

Who gets the money

What a stream earns is split before it reaches you:

• The recording (the master) earns most of it. It's paid to your distributor or label, which passes on your share. Many distributors pass on 100% for a yearly fee; some keep a cut (CD Baby keeps 9%, RouteNote's free plan 15%). See music distributors compared.
• The song (the composition) earns a separate, smaller amount through publishing: the writers and their publisher collect it, through a collecting society and a publishing administrator.
• Splits: if you share the master with a producer or a co-artist, your part is your percentage of what's left.

What does it take to earn $1,000?

At $3 per 1,000 streams, about 333,000 Spotify streams. At Apple Music's $6.20, about 161,000. The calculator does it for any amount, distributor and split.

Can ads pay for themselves in streams?

Rarely, and that's not what they're for. At $3 per 1,000 streams, $100 of ads would need about 33,000 Spotify streams just to earn itself back. What ads buy is new listeners: the ones who save the song and follow you come back for every release, and they're the people who buy tickets and merch. So the goal is the cheapest listener who stays, which comes from testing which part of your song hooks people. Our guide to promoting a song with ads shows how.

Find the part of your song that brings listeners.

Clips makes the ad for every part, from one song.

See Clips →

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