The Applaudix Post

In 2025, streaming remains the number one method of music consumption worldwide. Spotify, YouTube, Apple Music, and many other services alike offer listeners the ability to stream music either free with ads or through a paid subscription service. These services collect billions in revenue and distribute a portion of it back to the artists, but just how much each platform pays varies more than many fans and even artists may realize. Our team at Applaudix broke down the numbers to show you exactly what those payouts look like today.

Many new artists assume streaming will be their main source of income, but for most, it’s actually the opposite. In traditional record deals, labels pay artists an advance in exchange for partial or full ownership of their music. The label then collects the majority of streaming revenue (sometimes 85% or more)  while the artist receives a much smaller share. The label does this with the goal of earning a return on their investment (i.e., the advance they paid the artist & money spent creating/promoting the song(s)). Many artists chose this route as they don’t have the means or necessary outreach to achieve a large number of streams by themselves. The label will also give the artist access to professional producers, engineers, and other tools that the artist might not be able to afford on their own.

Other than their advance, artists make money through ventures like concert ticket sales, merchandise sales, meet and greets, and more; however, the label might be entitled to some of this money as well depending on the specifics of the deal that is signed.

But as for independent artists or artists involved in unconventional record deals, they get 100% of their streaming revenue, assuming they aren’t splitting profits with any producers or featured artists. So how much do they make per stream?

It actually varies depending on the streaming service, the subscription level of the listener, geographic location, and more. For example, a stream from a paying user on Spotify roughly pays out $0.007, while a stream from a free user roughly pays out $0.0025.

With that being said, we did our best at providing you with an average payment per one stream versus a million streams across a variety of different platforms. We also provide a popularity rank based on how many users each respective platform has and a royalty rank to see how the platforms compare against each other.

These popularity and royalty rankings are only based on the platforms listed below, and popularity is determined by paying users alone.

Spotify

Average Royalties per Stream: $0.00437

Average Royalties per 1,000,000 Streams: $4,370.00

Number of Paying Users: 268M

Popularity Rank: #1

Royalty Rank: #3

Apple Music

Average Royalties per Stream: $0.007

Average Royalties per 1,000,000 Streams: $7,000.00

Number of Paying Users: 103M

Popularity Rank: #2

Royalty Rank: #2

TIDAL

Average Royalties per Stream: .01284

Average Royalties per 1,000,000 Streams: $12,840.00

Number of Paying Users: 3M

Popularity Rank: #5

Royalty Rank: #1

Youtube Music

Average Royalties per Stream: $0.00346

Average Royalties per 1,000,000 Streams: $3,459.10

Number of Paying Users: 100M

Popularity Rank: #3

Royalty Rank: #5

Amazon Music

Average Royalties per Stream: $0.00402

Average Royalties per 1,000,000 Streams: $4,020

Number of Paying Users: # 53M

Popularity Rank: #4

Royalty Rank: #4

Soundcloud

Average Royalties per Stream: $0.0013

Average Royalties per 1,000,000 Streams: $1,300

Number of Paying Users: 1.7M

Popularity Rank: #6

Royalty Rank: #6

Sometimes we can see a correlation between popularity and royalty rankings. Other factors like the cost of subscription per service and choice of subscription play a role in determining an artist's payout. For example, TIDAL is able to pay nearly four times what Spotify pays on average despite Spotify having 89x as many paying subscribers. This is largely due to TIDAL not offering a free service, as subscription fees allow the service to give the artist more money than ad revenue, and their high subscription costs. To compare, Spotify has a 1.53:1 free user to subscriber ratio and costs $0.00 to $11.99 a month, while TIDAL costs $10.99 to $19.99 a month. The individual business model of each service, the location of their subscribers, and so many more little things also contribute to the overall payout that these services give.

Striking a balance between a positive user experience and competitive compensation for artists is one of the biggest challenges in streaming that these platforms have to deal with. In turn, this leads to a plethora of different business models that result in fluctuating subscription costs, royalty payments, and overall user/artist experience across different streaming services. For independent artists planning a release, these differences matter, and choosing the right platform to promote your music can have a real impact on both your exposure and your earnings.