There are many way to get your music out to the public, one of the most common ways of doing it is by earning through plays on every stream. Streaming services vary from anything on Youtube or Spotify to Apple Music and even Amazon!
Streaming:
Here is a list (from highest to lowest) of the most used music streaming websites and how much they pay per stream, download, play and/or share:
Napster: $0.019 per stream
Tidal : $0.0125 per stream
Apple Music: $0.00735 per stream
Google Play Music: $0.00676 per stream
Deezer: $0.00640 per stream
Spotify: $0.00473 per stream
Amazon Music: $0.00402 per stream
Pandora Premium: $0.00133 per stream
YouTube: $0.00069 per stream
Soundcloud:
Soundcloud is by far the most complicated service at the moment. Rates vary depending on the countries that play the music and you would need access to monetize your account either directly or though an affiliate distributor. Most accounts don’t make any money at all, and the ones that are monetized are paid based on how many people click the ads on the streams.
Here’s a general breakdown: $0.0025 to $0.004/stream (~$2.50–$4.00/1000 plays.)
It’s an average of about $3 / 1000 plays.
That being said, the pay also varies depending on what country that play comes from.
How to earn the minimum wage?
Here’s a breakdown of what it would take to make about $1,160 per month in the United States for each streaming service:
Napster: 61,052
Tidal : 92,800
Apple Music: 157,823
Google Play Music: 171,598
Deezer: 181,250
Spotify: 245,243
Amazon Music: 288,557
Pandora Premium: 872,180
YouTube: 1,681,159
How to get started:
A easy way to get started on monetizing your music on streaming services is by reading our blog on Music Distribution. You’ll see a list of the top music distribution sites, rates, and royalty splits (if any). Check that out here:
Depending on the platform on where your music gets heard, you may find your checks coming in a little fatter. This information may be useful to you to determine where you want to focus your marketing strategy. You might find that Youtube has a larger audience and it may be easier to rack up your streams, but the pay is substantially lower.
Depending on your individual goals you may opt to try to push your existing audience to follow you and listen on a more suitable streaming service.
Music Distribution: A Guide To Get Your Music On Spotify
Spotify playlist’s are one of the top opportunities for an artist to reach a new audience. It’s no wonder so many artists are pushing to get their music on Spotify and other streaming services. We will talk a little bit more about how to place yourself in the best position to be selected for a playlist on a future blog post, but for now just know that you’ll always benefit from affordable mixing and mastering by Studio 411. For a limited time try them free here.
One of the biggest questions we get asked is our opinion on what distribution service is the best choice for them. We will just give you the facts. There’s a lot of factors to choose from so we decided to lay things out in a way that was easy to understand. That way, you can make the decision on what the best solution is for you.
The only one take away from all of this information is to choose one and try not to switch to another one in the future. That will cause all kinds of trouble in branding, profiles and well everything else. Lets get started:
AWAL might be for you if you’re trying to get your music on Spotify playlists. They don’t take any fees for putting up your music on streaming services, but charge a 15% commission (15% of everything you earn goes to AWAL). Also, they offer one of the best analytics report tools of all.
Distrokid allows you to upload as many tracks as you want for a yearly membership fee. The cool thing about them is that they don’t make commission from your music – you get all the money you earn from your music. Unfortunately they don’t offer marketing help or playlist plugging possibilities.
+ No commission (you get all the money you earn)
+ You can upload as many songs as you wish for one yearly price
+ They’re about to introduce SMS message marketing tools for artists
– No additional marketing help for artists who gain traction
Tunecore is the service for you if you’re interested in proper revenue and analytics reports. They’re very easy to use, detailed and helpful. Although they take no commission the price is a bit higher compared to Distrokid.
LANDR is a company which offers an automated mastering service. If you’re already their subscriber you can distribute your music to all streaming services for free. They also offer you possibilities to get your music on Spotify playlists which is very nice.
+ No commission
+ Possibilities to get your music on playlists
+ Free for LANDR Mastering subscribers
– Does not provide mechanisms for you to release a cover song
Pricing: $1/month ($12/year) minimum. $3/month ($36/year) gives you access to all streaming sercvices
CD Baby was one of the first ever services to let DIY musicians release their music in a physical format like CD or Vinyl and get it to record shops around the world. Nowadays they also let you release music on streaming services and you can do it all in one place.
+ It’s a “one stop shop” to get your music on streaming services as well as physically in stores (CD, Vinyl)
– No marketing help for artists who gain traction
Pricing: $5 per single, $20 per album + 9% commission
