Music Streaming : Who Pays The Best

Music Streaming: Who Pays The Best

 Back in the days, artists and record labels were going down the hill. The main culprit for this plight was the peer-to-peer file sharing.

However, music streaming platforms have given a new life to the struggling industry. These streaming platforms have given the opportunity for the song owners to distribute their creations through various platforms which give them vast visibility.

These platforms have different rates and let’s see who pays the best in Music Streaming.

How does paying work?

 With the huge downfall of the music industry, On-demand streaming had emerged to the surface as a savior. However, streaming services such as Spotify had been criticized quite often in the past for not paying the artists sufficiently.

Mainly in the United States, there are two types of royalties that are collected from a streaming service depending on whether it is an interactive (Spotify, Apple Music) or a non-interactive (Pandora, Slacker) streaming platform.

The two types are Mechanical and Performance royalties.

If you have an original and complete recording, also known as a Master Recording that can be used to make copies on a streaming service, then you can collect royalties for them per stream.

The payout process of these streaming services tends to be different from each other.

For instance, Spotify’s payment pipeline sifts the revenue a lot before it finally reaches the artist.

They take the Spotify monthly revenue into account and divide the Artist’s streams by the total streams. Then 70% of the revenue goes to the Master and publishing owners. After this, the artist’s royalty rate is considered to finally decide the Artist’s payout.

Who pays the best?

1. According to statista.com, YouTube has the lowest pay per stream that is $0.00074. The funny thing is YouTube is on the top when it comes to the number of plays per song. YouTube practically requires a minimum of 1,500 plays to earn a dollar.
2. Next in line is Pandora which pays $0.00134 per stream. 
3. Spotify takes the 8th place by paying $0.00397 per stream. Spotify has the highest market share based on the streams which is 47.8%.
4. The 7th place is taken by none other than Google. Per stream, they pay $0.00611.
5. Deezer pays $0.00624 per stream and falls into 6th place.
6. The 5th place takes Amazon by paying $0.00740 per stream.
7.  Apple Music pays $0.00783 per stream.
8.  Tidal comes in the 3rd place that pays $0.01284 per stream.
9.  The second-highest pay per-stream rate has Rhapsody which is $0.01682. 
10.  The winner is, (Drum roll) Xbox Music. According to statista.com Xbox Music pays $0.02730 per stream. Although they pay considerably a higher amount, their market share based on the streams is the lowest which is 0.1%.

Conclusion

 Considering all the bits and pieces, it is undoubtedly certain that every Music streaming platform doesn’t pay equally.

Remember to research and pick what is suitable for you. Compare their features while you are at it. This way you can pick the best streaming service for you.

References

1. https://help.songtrust.com/knowledge/do-all-streaming-platforms-pay-the-same-rate
2. https://www.visualcapitalist.com/how-many-music-streams-to-earn-a-dollar/
3. https://www.statista.com/chart/13407/music-streaming_-who-pays-best/
4. https://blog.songtrust.com/types-of-streaming-royalties