Streaming Royalty Calculator
What your streams pay,and what you really keep
This streaming royalty calculator turns your streams on Spotify, Apple Music, YouTube and six more platforms into money. It uses where your listeners live, then takes off your distributor, label, collaborators and tax. You get a range, not a fake exact number.
Calculator
Your streams, your money
Enter your streams for one month. Everything updates as you type, and the address of this page keeps your numbers so you can share them.
Your results
You keep about
$199per month
Between $149 and $251
The platforms pay $199 in total for these plays
You keep $1.00 of every $1
100% out of every dollar your streams earn reaches your pocket, after every cut you entered.
Where the money goes
- Paid for the recording (master)
- $199
- Distributor
- $0.00
- Label or manager
- $0.00
- Collaborators
- $0.00
- Tax
- $0.00
- You keep
- $199
Earnings per platform
- Spotify$140
- Apple Music$44.83
- YouTube$13.80
Earnings per country
Spotify, Apple Music, YouTube Music, Amazon, Deezer and TIDAL pay more in some countries than others. YouTube video views, SoundCloud and Pandora use one rate everywhere and aren’t in this chart.
- United States · 25%$64.35
- Other countries · 42%$55.44
- Germany · 6%$17.42
- United Kingdom · 6%$16.63
- Brazil · 8%$14.78
- Mexico · 7%$11.55
- India · 6%$4.75
Streams you need
To keep $1,000 a month
392,489streams a monthbetween 310,997 and 523,699493,229streams a monthbetween 390,821 and 658,117
$1,257 a month (federal $7.25/hour × 40 h/week), about $1,257. Exchange rate approximate. US Department of Labor, federal minimum wage ($7.25/hour)
Spotify’s 1,000-stream minimum counts each track on its own. If your streams are spread over many songs, some may earn $0 even when your total is higher.
Rate per stream for your listeners
| Platform | Streams a month | Per stream | Per 1,000 | Range per 1,000 | Paid a month |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Spotify | 50,000 | $0.0028 | $2.80 | $2.10 – $3.50 | $140 |
| Apple Music | 8,000 | $0.0056 | $5.60 | $4.48 – $7.29 | $44.83 |
| YouTubevideo views | 20,000 | $0.0007 | $0.69 | $0.40 – $0.87 | $13.80 |
Estimates from Escalium’s rate model, in US dollars, before currency exchange and bank fees. Real payouts change every month.
Exact streaming royalty calculator
Why no public calculator can be exact
Searching for an exact streaming royalty calculator? Here’s the honest answer: nobody outside your distributor knows your exact number before the statement arrives. These are the reasons.
There’s no price per stream
Spotify, Apple Music and the others put the money from subscriptions and ads in one pot each month. You get your share of the pot: your streams divided by all streams. The pot and everyone else’s streams change every month, so your rate changes too.
Every listener is worth something different
A Premium listener in Norway brings in more money than a free listener in Egypt. Two artists with the same streams can earn very different amounts.
Free and paid listeners
Streams from paying subscribers pay several times more than streams from free, ad-supported accounts. Public dashboards don’t show you that split.
Currency and timing
Platforms pay in many currencies. Your distributor converts them and pays you a few months after the streams happen, at that day’s exchange rate.
Your own deals
Your distributor, label, publisher and collaborators each have their own contract. A calculator only knows the cuts you tell it.
The exact number is in your distributor report
DistroKid, TuneCore, CD Baby, Amuse, Ditto and others let you download a report with every store, country and track. Upload it to Escalium’s “My numbers” and we read your real earnings: per platform, per country, per song and per month. No estimate.
How streaming payouts work
From a listener’s subscription to your account
Streaming services don’t pay per play. They share their money with the people who own the music, in proportion to streams. This is called the pro-rata model.
The monthly pot
Each month a platform adds up what it earned from subscriptions and ads in each country, minus taxes and payment fees. Spotify says it pays out this net revenue to rights holders; it paid more than $11 billion to the music industry in 2025.
Your share of streams
Spotify calls it streamshare: your streams divided by all streams in that country that month. Your share of streams gives your share of the pot.
Two kinds of royalty
The recording (the master) is paid to whoever delivered it: your distributor or label. The song (the composition, or publishing) is paid to publishers, collecting societies and mechanical agencies, then to songwriters.
The 1,000-stream minimum
Since 1 April 2024, a track must reach 1,000 streams on Spotify in the last 12 months to earn recording royalties. Below that, it earns nothing there.
Then the cuts
Your distributor or label takes its commission, collaborators get their split, and the rest is yours, before tax.
Master and publishing: two different payments
Master royalties
Paid for the recording. They go to your distributor or label, then to you. This is the biggest part and what most calculators show.
Mechanical royalties
Paid for copying the song (every stream counts as a copy). In the US, the MLC collects them from streaming services. Elsewhere, your collecting society or publisher does.
Performance royalties
Paid for playing the song in public, and a stream counts. Collected by societies like ASCAP and BMI (US), PRS (UK) or SGAE (Spain).
In the US, the songwriting side of streaming is set at about 15% of a service’s revenue (Phonorecords IV: 15.1% in 2023 rising to 15.35% in 2027). The recording side gets several times more. If you wrote your songs and aren’t registered with a collecting society, you’re leaving that money behind.
Pay per stream 2026
How much each platform pays per stream
Per 1,000 streams, paid to the master owner (your distributor or label), before any cut. Spotify’s numbers come from Escalium’s country model; the other platforms are based on how they compared to Spotify in Duetti’s 2024 report of independent artists’ earnings.
| Platform | US listeners | Spain | Other countries | How we got it |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Spotify | $3.90$2.93 – $4.88 | $3.50$2.63 – $4.38 | $2.00$1.50 – $2.50 | Country rates from Escalium’s revenue model; the range (−25% / +25%) covers the gap between free and Premium listeners and month-to-month changes in the pool. |
| Apple Music | $7.80$6.24 – $10.14 | $7.00$5.60 – $9.10 | $4.00$3.20 – $5.20 | About 2× Spotify in the same country (Duetti 2024: $6.20 vs $3.00 per 1,000). Apple has no free tier, which is why it pays more. |
| YouTube Music | $6.24$3.90 – $7.80 | $5.60$3.50 – $7.00 | $3.20$2.00 – $4.00 | Audio streams on YouTube Music: about 1.6× Spotify (Duetti 2024: $4.80 per 1,000). Premium listeners pay far more than free ones. |
| YouTube (video views) | $0.69$0.40 – $0.87 | $0.69$0.40 – $0.87 | $0.69$0.40 – $0.87 | Views of your videos and of other people’s videos using your song (Content ID). Escalium’s rate is $0.69 per 1,000 views, the same one used on our YouTube top 100. |
| Amazon Music | $7.80$4.68 – $11.31 | $7.00$4.20 – $10.15 | $4.00$2.40 – $5.80 | Escalium’s estimate: 2× Spotify. Duetti measured up to 2.9× in 2024, but plays from Prime (included with shipping) pay much less than Music Unlimited. |
| Deezer | $5.07$3.12 – $7.80 | $4.55$2.80 – $7.00 | $2.60$1.60 – $4.00 | Escalium’s estimate: about 1.3× Spotify. Deezer’s artist-centric model pays more to artists with at least 1,000 streams from 500 listeners a month, and less below that. |
| TIDAL | $8.58$6.63 – $11.70 | $7.70$5.95 – $10.50 | $4.40$3.40 – $6.00 | Escalium’s estimate: about 2.2× Spotify. Duetti’s 2024 data put TIDAL above $6 per 1,000, with Apple and Amazon. Small audience, so few streams. |
| SoundCloud | $3.00$2.50 – $4.00 | $3.00$2.50 – $4.00 | $3.00$2.50 – $4.00 | Escalium’s estimate: $3 per 1,000 monetised plays, the rate our artist pages use. Only plays SoundCloud monetises (listeners in paid or ad markets) count. |
| Pandora | $1.80$1.10 – $2.80 | $1.80$1.10 – $2.80 | $1.80$1.10 – $2.80 | US only. Escalium’s estimate for the share that reaches the master owner. Pandora’s radio plays pay a legal rate per play through SoundExchange ($0.0028 in 2026), split between label, featured artist and session musicians. |
Rates checked on October 28, 2026. Each platform pays differently every month; treat these as averages.
Why the country matters
Same stream, different money depending on the country
Each country has its own pot. Subscriptions cost more in Norway or Denmark than in India or Egypt, and more people pay for Premium there. So a stream from Oslo pays several times more than a stream from Cairo.
That’s why the calculator asks where your listeners are. You’ll find your top countries in Spotify for Artists, under Audience, or in your distributor’s report.
Spotify payout per 1,000 streams by listener country
Escalium’s model, in US dollars. Countries not listed use the “other countries” rate.
- Norway$7.20
- Denmark$6.85
- Sweden$6.80
- Iceland$6.72
- Finland$6.40
- Netherlands$5.20
- Australia$5.20
- Germany$4.40
- United Kingdom$4.20
- Canada$4.10
- United States$3.90
- France$3.80
- Poland$3.60
- Spain$3.50
- Italy$3.40
- Japan$3.20
- Brazil$2.80
- Mexico$2.50
- South Korea$2.40
- Argentina$2.20
- Other countries$2.00
- India$1.20
- Turkey$1.10
- Indonesia$1.00
- Philippines$0.95
- Egypt$0.85
How to use it
Your royalties in four steps
Enter your streams per platform
Use one month of streams from Spotify for Artists, Apple Music for Artists, YouTube Studio or your distributor. Turn on “Show per year” to see yearly totals.
Set where your listeners are
Pick a quick mix or enter your own top countries and their share of your listeners.
Add who takes a cut
Choose your distributor, then any label, collaborator or publisher share, and tax if you want a net figure.
Read your range and share it
You see what the platforms pay, what you keep, per platform and per country. Copy the link to send the result to your team.
Worked examples
Three artists, three real cases
Each example uses the calculator above. Open it to change any number.
A Spanish indie artist on DistroKid
40,000 Spotify streams and 5,000 Apple Music streams a month, 70% of listeners in Spain, 10% in Mexico, 20% elsewhere. DistroKid keeps 0%.
They keep about $155 a month (between $118 and $195), from $155 paid by the platforms: $1.00 of every dollar.
Open this example in the calculatorA US duo on CD Baby
250,000 Spotify, 40,000 Apple Music and 100,000 YouTube views a month, mostly US listeners. CD Baby keeps 9%, and each member owns half the recording.
They keep about $579 a month (between $436 and $731), from $1,274 paid by the platforms: $0.46 of every dollar.
Open this example in the calculatorA signed artist with a classic record deal
1,000,000 Spotify streams a month worldwide. The label keeps 80% and the artist wrote the songs, so publishing is added (no publisher).
They keep about $1,261 a month (between $799 and $1,821), from $3,503 paid by the platforms: $0.36 of every dollar.
Open this example in the calculator
Earn more from streaming
How to increase your streaming income
Get more of your fans to the right platform
One link that opens your song on each fan’s own app makes it easy to play the song, not just look at it. Escalium makes these smart links and pre-save pages free.
Make a free smart linkPut your song on YouTube with a lyric video
YouTube pays for every view of a video using your song. A lyric video takes minutes with Escalium and gives fans something to watch and share.
Make a lyric videoGrow in countries that pay more
A stream from the UK or Germany pays more than one from many other countries. If your ads and posts can reach them, aim some of them there.
Run music adsGet every song past 1,000 streams a year
On Spotify, a track under 1,000 yearly streams earns nothing. Push fewer songs harder instead of spreading fans thin across many releases.
Plan your releaseRegister your songs to collect publishing
If you wrote the song, join a collecting society and register each track. Mechanical and performance royalties are paid on top of what your distributor sends you.
Watch which songs and countries earn
Upload your distributor reports to Escalium to see which songs, platforms and countries really pay you, month by month.
See my numbers
Methodology and sources
How the calculator works
- Spotify: each country’s payout per stream from Escalium’s revenue model, the same one behind the artist pages and the YouTube top 100 on Escalium. The rate for your mix is the average of the countries, weighted by your listeners.
- Apple Music, YouTube Music, Amazon Music, Deezer and TIDAL: a multiple of the Spotify rate in your countries, based on how much more or less each one paid than Spotify in Duetti’s 2024 report. Deezer and TIDAL are Escalium’s estimates.
- YouTube video views, SoundCloud and Pandora: one rate for every country. YouTube’s is $0.69 per 1,000 views, the rate Escalium’s YouTube data uses.
- Range: the low and high figures use the low and high end of each rate. The expected figure is the middle.
- Spotify’s 1,000 streams a year minimum is applied to your Spotify streams. Publishing is added as about a quarter of the master payout (Escalium’s estimate from the US Phonorecords IV rate).
- Everything runs in your browser. Nothing you type is sent to Escalium.
Sources
- Spotify for Artists, “Royalties” (support article) · checked October 28, 2026
- Spotify for Artists, “Modernizing our royalty system” (live since 1 April 2024) · checked October 28, 2026
- Spotify Loud & Clear 2026 (2025 royalty data) · checked March 11, 2026
- Duetti, 2024 Music Economics Report (per 1,000 streams paid to independent master owners) · checked January 22, 2025
- Dynamoi, “How much Spotify pays per stream” (US effective rate, January 2026) · checked October 28, 2026
- Apple’s letter to artists on Apple Music payouts (reported by 9to5Mac) · checked April 16, 2021
- LabelGrid, “How much does YouTube pay per stream” · checked October 28, 2026
- Copyright Royalty Board, Phonorecords IV settlement (US songwriting rate for streaming, 2023–2027) · checked December 30, 2022
- US webcasting rates for non-interactive radio (Web VI, 2026–2030) · checked October 28, 2026
- DistroKid pricing · checked October 28, 2026
- TuneCore pricing · checked October 28, 2026
- CD Baby, “How much does CD Baby cost?” · checked October 28, 2026
- Amuse pricing · checked October 28, 2026
FAQ
Streaming royalties: your questions
Spotify doesn’t pay a fixed rate: it shares its revenue by streams. In Escalium’s model a stream pays about $0.0039 from a US listener, $0.0035 from Spain, $0.0072 from Norway and $0.0020 from countries outside our table. Independent measurements agree on the range: Duetti found $3.00 per 1,000 Spotify streams on average in 2024, and Dynamoi measured $4.43 per 1,000 in the US in January 2026.
With US listeners, about $3,900 paid to your distributor or label (between $2,925 and $4,875). With a worldwide mix it’s less. What you keep depends on your distributor, label and splits: try it in the calculator above.
No public calculator can be exact. Platforms share a monthly pot, so the rate changes every month and depends on each listener’s country and on whether they pay. Your exact earnings are only in your distributor’s report. Upload it to Escalium’s “My numbers” to read them per store, country and song.
Among the big ones, Amazon Music, Apple Music and TIDAL pay the most per stream, about twice Spotify or more, partly because they have no free tier or a small one. YouTube video views pay the least. But Spotify usually brings the most money in total because it has the most listeners.
Usually because of free listeners, countries that pay less, your distributor’s or label’s cut, splits with collaborators, Spotify’s 1,000-stream minimum per track, bank and currency fees, or tax withholding. Enter each of these in the calculator to see their effect.
Since 1 April 2024, a track needs at least 1,000 streams in the previous 12 months to earn recording royalties on Spotify. Spotify said the change moves money from tiny payments to tracks that pass the line. It applies to each track, not to your whole catalogue.
Master royalties pay for the recording and reach you through your distributor or label. Publishing royalties pay for the song itself (lyrics and melody) and reach songwriters through publishers, collecting societies and, in the US, the MLC. If you wrote and recorded your song, you can earn both.
It depends. DistroKid, TuneCore’s paid plans and Amuse keep 0% of streaming royalties and charge a yearly fee. CD Baby keeps 9% and charges once per release. Free distributors and label-services deals usually take a percentage. Check your contract.
With only US Spotify listeners and no cuts, about 256,411 streams a month. With a worldwide mix, more. Enter your own mix and cuts in the calculator to see your number, and the streams you’d need to earn the minimum wage in your country.
Yes, a lot. In Escalium’s model a Spotify stream from Norway pays about 8.5 times more than one from Egypt. Two artists with the same streams can earn very different amounts.
YouTube Music audio streams pay roughly like Spotify or a bit more. Views of videos, including other people’s videos that use your song through Content ID, pay much less: Escalium uses $0.69 per 1,000 views.
Platforms report to distributors a few months after the streams happen, and then your distributor pays you. That’s why your statement for a month usually arrives two or three months later, and why exchange rates can move in the meantime.
Your exact numbers
Stop guessing. Read your real earnings
This calculator gives you a fair range. Your distributor report has the real figure. Upload it to Escalium and see what each store, country and song paid you, month by month.
Upload my distributor reportDistroKid, TuneCore, CD Baby, Amuse, Ditto and more
Per store, country, song and month
Your real money, not an estimate