Streaming Services Royalties Calculator
Enter your total stream count, choose your streaming platform, and select your distribution deal to estimate how much royalty income you will earn. The calculator shows your gross payout, the distributor or label cut, and what you take home. Switch platforms to compare earnings side by side, or use the reverse-solve mode to find out how many streams you need to hit a target income.
How streaming royalties are calculated
Streaming platforms pay royalties based on a pro-rata model: each month the platform collects total revenue from subscriptions and advertising, then divides that pool among all rights-holders in proportion to how many streams each track received. If your track accounts for 0.01% of all streams on the platform that month, you receive 0.01% of the royalty pool. This is why the per-stream rate is not fixed: it fluctuates as the pool size and total stream count both change. In practice, most artists use an average rate as a planning tool, knowing actual payouts will vary.
How your distribution deal affects your take-home pay
The gross royalty the platform pays goes first to your distributor or label, not directly to you. Flat-fee distributors like DistroKid and TuneCore charge a fixed annual fee and pass 100% of streaming royalties to the artist. Commission-based distributors like CD Baby keep around 9% of each stream. Indie label deals typically give the artist 40-60% of master royalties, while major label deals can leave the artist with only 15-25%. If you co-own the master recording with another artist or producer, your royalty share further reduces your net payout. This calculator lets you model all these scenarios so you can see exactly what you take home after every layer of the deal.
Platform comparison: where should you focus?
Apple Music and Deezer pay the highest average per-stream rates, but Spotify has by far the largest active user base, so more streams are available there even at a lower unit rate. Tidal has historically paid well but has a smaller audience. YouTube Music has a wide rate range because ad-supported streams pay a fraction of what premium subscribers generate. For most independent artists, maximizing streams on Spotify and pitching for Apple Music playlists is the highest-leverage combination. Deezer's user-centric payment model, where each subscriber's money goes only to the artists that subscriber actually listened to, tends to reward artists with loyal repeat listeners more than the standard pro-rata model does.
Using the reverse-solve mode to set stream goals
Switch the calculator to "Target income to streams needed" mode and enter a monthly income goal. The calculator works backward from that target through your distribution deal and royalty share to tell you exactly how many streams per month you need. This is useful for setting concrete growth targets: if you need 250,000 streams per month on Spotify to cover a monthly expense, you now have a specific number to work toward with playlist pitching, social promotion, and release strategy.
Average per-stream rates by platform (2026)
| Platform | Avg. rate (USD) | Rate range | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Spotify | $0.0036 | $0.003-$0.005 | Largest catalog; rates vary widely by listener geography |
| Apple Music | $0.0089 | $0.005-$0.009 | Higher rate; subscription-only (no free tier) |
| YouTube Music | $0.0050 | $0.001-$0.008 | Wide range; ad-supported listeners pay far less |
| Amazon Music | $0.0057 | $0.004-$0.008 | Includes Unlimited and Prime listeners |
| Tidal | $0.0080 | $0.007-$0.013 | HiFi-focused; historically higher payouts |
| Deezer | $0.0104 | $0.006-$0.014 | User-centric payment model since 2023 |
| Pandora | $0.0021 | $0.001-$0.003 | Lower rates; large ad-supported audience |
| SoundCloud | $0.0030 | $0.002-$0.004 | Fan-powered royalties for eligible artists |
Industry averages. Actual payouts vary by listener subscription tier, country, and the platform revenue pool each month.
Frequently asked questions
How much does Spotify pay per stream?
Spotify pays an average of about $0.003 to $0.005 per stream, with a midpoint around $0.0036. The exact figure varies by the listener's country and subscription tier (premium vs. ad-supported), the total number of streams on the platform that month, and your distribution agreement. A premium subscriber in the US or UK generates significantly more per stream than an ad-supported listener in a lower-revenue market.
Which streaming platform pays the most per stream?
Among major platforms, Deezer and Apple Music typically pay the highest per-stream rates, averaging around $0.008 to $0.010. Tidal has historically been competitive at $0.007 to $0.013. Pandora and ad-supported YouTube streams sit at the low end. However, sheer audience size matters too: a modestly higher rate on a platform with far fewer listeners can produce less total revenue than a lower rate on Spotify with its very large user base.
What is the difference between a gross royalty and a net royalty?
The gross royalty is the total amount the streaming platform releases to the rights-holder for a given set of streams. The net royalty is what the artist actually receives after the distributor or label takes their share. For a flat-fee distributor like DistroKid the gross and net are the same per stream. For a commission-based distributor like CD Baby the net is 91% of gross. For a major label deal the artist's net can be as low as 15-25% of gross.
Do I earn royalties from free tier listeners?
Yes, but at a much lower rate. Ad-supported listeners on Spotify or YouTube Music generate revenue from advertising rather than subscription fees. Because ad revenue per listener is lower than subscription revenue, the effective per-stream rate for a free-tier stream is typically a fraction of what a premium subscriber generates. Some platforms like Apple Music and Tidal have no free tier at all, which is one reason their per-stream rates are higher on average.
What is a user-centric royalty model?
In the traditional pro-rata model all subscriber money goes into a single pool and is split by total streams, so mega-popular artists get a disproportionate share. Under a user-centric model, each subscriber's monthly fee is divided only among the artists that subscriber actually listened to. Deezer adopted user-centric payments in 2023. For artists with engaged niche audiences the user-centric model tends to pay more than pro-rata, because their loyal listeners' subscription money flows directly to them rather than being diluted by streams of top-chart artists those listeners never played.
How many Spotify streams do I need to make minimum wage?
At the average Spotify rate of about $0.0036 per stream and a typical independent artist keeping 100% via a flat-fee distributor, earning US federal minimum wage ($7.25/hr for a 40-hour week, roughly $1,257/month) would require approximately 350,000 streams per month. That figure scales up sharply if you are on a label deal or if your audience is predominantly in lower-revenue markets. Use the "target income to streams needed" mode in this calculator to model your specific deal.
Does my royalty share include both master and publishing royalties?
This calculator estimates master recording royalties only, which are the payments streaming platforms make to the owner of the sound recording. Publishing royalties (also called performance and mechanical royalties) are a separate stream paid to songwriters and publishers through organizations like ASCAP, BMI, or SESAC in the US and their international equivalents. If you wrote the songs you record, you are entitled to both; if you covered a song you did not write, you typically receive only the master royalty from streaming.