artists earn on music streaming platforms like
Spotify and YouTube? It used to be that artists made
their money from the sale of albums, 8-track and
cassette tapes, CDs, etc. Most of you probably
never even heard of an 8-track or cassette, am I right?!
With the advance of technology, music went from
an album you bought at the local record store to
a virtual file you purchase in an online store. So much has
changed the way we buy and listen to music. It was inevitable
that the music industry had to change too.
Enter Napster, YouTube, Spotify and all the rest...
I found an interesting article, "Music Streaming Services: Royalty
Payouts in 2019" by EDMTUNES. Here's a link if you'd
like to check it out, https://www.edmtunes.com/2018/12/music-streaming-services-royalty-payouts-in-2019/ According to the article, music streaming services pay artists the following, from highest to lowest payouts:
1. Napster pays $0.019 per stream
2. Tidal pays $0.0125 per stream
3. Apple pays $0.00735 per stream
4. GooglePlay music pays $0.00676 per stream
5. Deezer pays $0.0064 per stream
6. Spotify pays $0.00437 per stream
7. Amazon pays $0.00402 per stream
8. Pandora pays $0.00133 per stream
9. YouTube pays $0.00069 per stream
Just for kicks and giggles, I wanted to see how Taylor Swift fared
with just one of her songs, You Need To Calm Down,
on YouTube and Spotify.
Taylor Swift's You Need To Calm Down on YouTube
118,000,000 views x $0.00069/view = $81,420
Taylor Swift's You Need To Calm Down on Spotify
163,540,706 streams x $0.00437/stream = $719,043
Not too bad for one song on 2 music platforms which pay the least amount to artists.
I would have crunched the numbers for You Need To Calm Down on
all the rest of the music streaming platforms but I wasn't able to get the data.
Suffice it to say, Ms. Swift is doing very well for herself just in music streaming alone.
I didn't even mention what she earns from
all of her sold out shows, her multi-platinum record sales, endorsements, etc.
According to an article in the LA Times on August 20, 2019,
"Two years ago, on demand streaming platforms
like Spotify and Apple counted for 54% of total music
consumption in the U.S, according to Nielsen music.
In 2019, that share is up to 80%." https://www.latimes.com/entertainment-arts/music/story/2019-08-20/taylor-swift-lover-streaming-spotify
There's no doubt that the game has definitely
changed when it comes to how we get our music now as opposed to
back in the "good old days." With the digital age,
music sound quality is better than before and it's cheaper for
consumers due to affordable monthly music streaming
subscriptions with almost unlimited access to music.
Although artists aren't selling as many "albums" as before, and even with the
fractions of pennies being paid to the artist per song stream as in my above example,
artists like Taylor Swift are not starving by any means!
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