What are your streams actually worth?
Every platform pays differently. Pick one below, plug in your monthly stream count, and get a realistic payout range instead of a single misleading number.
Which platform pays the most per stream?
Rates below are rough industry ranges. Your own payout depends on your distributor deal and where your listeners actually are — use the calculators above for a number tied to your streams.
| Platform | Est. rate / stream | Streams for $1,000 | Free tier |
|---|---|---|---|
| Tidal | $0.008–$0.013 | ~77K–125K | No |
| Apple Music | $0.007–$0.010 | ~100K–143K | No |
| Deezer | $0.004–$0.007 | ~143K–250K | Yes |
| Amazon Music | $0.004–$0.007 | ~143K–250K | Yes |
| Spotify | $0.003–$0.005 | ~200K–333K | Yes |
| YouTube Music | $0.002–$0.005 | ~200K–500K | Yes |
Why your per-stream rate isn't a fixed number
Most platforms don't pay a set price per play. Instead, they take everything subscribers and advertisers paid in that month, pool it, and divide it up based on each track's share of total listening. That pool grows or shrinks with the platform's revenue, and your slice depends on how many total streams happened alongside yours — which is why a "per-stream rate" is really an average, not a price tag.
That also means the same 100,000 streams can pay out very differently month to month, or platform to platform, even for the same artist. A calculator that only multiplies streams by one flat number will always miss this — which is why we show a range instead of a single figure.
Listener location
Subscription prices differ by country, so a play from a listener in the US or UK pulls more revenue into the pool than one from a market with cheaper plans.
Free vs. paid listening
A stream from a paying subscriber is worth more than one from an ad-supported free-tier listener, since ad revenue per play is generally lower than subscription revenue.
Total platform volume
The royalty pool is fixed for the month, so if overall listening on the platform spikes, each individual stream's share of that pool gets diluted — and vice versa.
The three highest-paying platforms
No ad-supported free tier tends to mean a higher per-stream rate, since every play comes from a paying subscriber.
Royalty payout questions, answered.
Still unsure what a number means? Here's what usually comes up.
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