Find out what your streams are worth or how many you need to hit your income goal.
Rates are industry averages and vary by region, subscription tier, and reporting period.
Streaming royalties are payments made to rights holders every time a song is played on a platform like Spotify, Apple Music, or Tidal. There are two types: master royalties (paid to the recording owner, collected by your distributor) and publishing royalties (paid to the songwriter, which must be claimed separately through a PRO, the MLC, and SoundExchange).
Spotify pays approximately $0.004 per stream, or about $4 per 1,000 streams. Your actual rate depends on the listener's country and whether they're on a paid or free plan. US premium listeners generate significantly more per play than free-tier listeners in smaller markets.
At Spotify's average rate of $0.004/stream, you need roughly 125,000 streams to earn $500. For $1,000 that's around 250,000 streams. On Apple Music (which pays ~$0.008/stream), the same $500 only takes about 62,500 streams. Use the reverse calculator above to find the exact number for any income target.
Tidal pays the highest rate at around $0.010 per stream, followed by Apple Music at ~$0.008. Spotify, Amazon Music, and Deezer all average around $0.004. YouTube Music and Pandora are the lowest at roughly $0.002 and $0.0013 respectively. Tidal and Apple pay more because they have no free tier, so all streams come from paying subscribers.
Spotify itself doesn't withhold royalties based on stream count, but most distributors have a minimum payout threshold (typically $10-$50) before they transfer earnings to you. Your royalties still accrue below that threshold and are paid once you reach it.
Each platform calculates royalties using a "streamshare" model: your streams as a percentage of total streams on the platform, multiplied by the platform's total royalty pool for that period. This is why per-stream rates fluctuate month to month instead of being a fixed amount.
No. The rates shown in this calculator are master recording royalties only, paid to the recording owner via your distributor. If you wrote the song, you're also owed a separate publishing royalty for every stream. This requires registration with a PRO (ASCAP, BMI, SESAC), the MLC for mechanical royalties, and SoundExchange for digital performance royalties. Most independent artists never collect this. Mogul handles it for you.
The rates used are industry averages based on publicly reported per-stream payouts. They're accurate for planning and estimating, but your actual earnings will vary based on listener geography, subscription tier, distributor commission, and each platform's royalty pool in a given reporting period. Think of it as a reliable ballpark, not a guarantee.
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