You might think paying $9.99/month for a Spotify or Apple Music subscription is enough for all entities involved to make a pretty penny. The hard truth for musicians is they don’t even make a penny when one of their songs are streamed. Just how little is paid to artists per stream may surprise you.
How much is paid to musicians per stream varies by music service and a number of other factors. On average revenue earned by musicians from streaming is around $0.004 per stream according to a number of industry sources we cross referenced.
Comparison
| Streaming Service | Market Share | Avg. Rate Per Stream |
| TIDAL | <1% | $0.0128 |
| Apple Music | 16% | $0.0080 |
| Amazon Music | 13% | $0.0040 |
| Spotify | 32% | $0.0032 |
| YouTube Music | 8% | $0.0020 |
| Pandora | 1% | $0.0013 |
| Deezer | 2% | $0.0011 |
Market Share Source: Statista
Avg. pay per stream Source: ProducerHive
Until there’s a new business model around music streaming, the best way to support your favorite artists is by buying their physical media such as records, CDs, tapes, or merchandise. Even purchasing digital music downloads gets real change into artist pockets, generally 70 cents on the dollar.
If you’ve watched the video, do you still think the music streaming platforms fairly compensate musicians? Or is there a better way?
Sponsored by SVS
Video by Emiko @thathifigirl
Audio mastering by Black Circle Radio
ORT
April 2, 2022 at 2:08 am
Hmmmmmm…One of my brothers supports the bands he and his wife enjoy by attending shows. For example, he likes The Red Elvises, so he goes to their shows at small venues and also buys their music on CD, usually at the show.
He also buys a LOT of downloads. Yes. He PAYS for them and has thousands. He often axes me why I do not go to live shows. Well, 90+ percent of the folk I listen to and enjoy are dead so there you have a genuine inconvenient truth. Besides, I like my CDs and records a lot. I used to be a bouncer in the 70s and have been to plenty of small group live shows. Disco out the wazoo if one needs to know. And Bluegrass and Country events too.
The last live event I for attended was in the mid 80s and was when my wife took me to see a favorite of mine, Johnny Mathis. He is still alive and I still buy records and CDs by him. I also listen to his music via Pandora, SiriusXM and Amazon Music Unlimited.
Same with Sinatra, Fitzgerald, Sassy Vaughn, Johnny Hartman and sooooo many more talented folk. listen to them via my services and I buy their records at my local Narnes & Boble!
But. Every one has a big but and here comes mine on this subject.
I do not yet have a definitive answer to what would make the “system” more profitable for those that create the content but I do know that making it like cable TV ain’t gonna cut it. I do NOT watch or pay for cable TV because they put in a buttload of garbage and stupid channels that I would NEVER watch and yet I have to pay for it because without them loading the slop up, it is claimed that these “small content creators would not be able to survive”.
Well maybe they shouldn’t? And by that I mean their “shows”, their “content” should not exist because few if any people want to view it.
It is like the majority of power-lifting and strongman events now and even more true for bodybuilding events in the sixties. Most of the audience for bodybuilding contests in the 40s through the 70s was family and friends. That is truth for many “artists” in the past, the present and for the foreseeable future. People should not have to support what they do not want to support.
And yet I cannot just pay for what I want to watch and in this digital age it would be easy to pick and choose what gets sent to your d cable TV box via IP and MAC address.
So do NOT go the route of cable TV, please. Like my mom taught me, just because some one named “Art” made some thing does NOT make it a “work of art”.
If you wish, I shall give this more thought and return when I have composed said thought. Or not. Like most folk, I do not have answers but questions and the main one is “why?” I like to think I can provide more of a viable response to your question but that requires time and thought and being a toad of very little brain makes it very time consuming.
I have a sense of humor too.
Either way, Miss Emiko, please let me know. I did enjoy your presentation and the passion behind it. Thank you.
In all ways and for always, be well.
ORT