Spotify royalty
calculator
Estimate what your Spotify streams could earn, by where your listeners are and which plan you are on. Drag the streams slider; every result is an estimate, not a statement.
Rough estimates of how per-stream pay differs by region.
estimateRange: $486.00 to $1,062.00
Gross before commission: $739.80
Platforms do not pay a fixed rate per stream. Figures depend on country, plan type and each platform's own revenue pool, so every rate here is an estimate. Approximate exchange rates set by us, for illustration.
Compare what you keep
Net per year after commission and fee, using the streams and platforms above.
Net = yearly earnings x (1 - commission) - yearly fee
Disclaimer: Per-stream rates are public industry estimates and vary by listener tier (free vs paid), geography, and DSP-specific deals. Actual earnings depend on listener territory mix, royalty agreements and PRO/PPL collection. WBBT does not guarantee these figures.
How much does Spotify pay per stream?
There is no fixed rate. Spotify says it does not pay a per-play or per-stream rate. It adds up subscription and advertising revenue, keeps what it must set aside, and shares the rest between rights holders by their share of all streams. This calculator assumes about $0.002 to $0.0045 per Spotify stream, with $0.00318as the typical figure. These are WBBT's own illustrative assumptions, not Spotify's numbers.
So 100,000 streams come to roughly $318.00 at the typical figure with listeners mostly in high-income countries, before any distributor commission.
How the calculation works
Earnings = monthly streams x the assumed rate for each platform x a listener-region factor. The region factor multiplies the typical rate by 1 for mostly high-income countries, 0.6 for a mixed audience and 0.3for mostly emerging markets. These are rough estimates. Then the plan's commission is taken off, and the compare section shows what you keep in a year after commission and any yearly fee.
The yearly view is the monthly figure times 12, if your streams stay the same.
What changes your Spotify payout
- Country. Spotify forms its pool per market, so the same number of streams can pay differently depending on where the listening happened.
- Free or paid listeners. Revenue comes from Premium fees and from advertising, and the mix differs by listener and country.
- The 1,000-stream rule. A track needs at least 1,000 streams in the previous 12 months to generate recorded royalties, according to Spotify's November 2023 announcement.
- Everyone else's streams. Your share is a proportion of the whole pool, so the same streams can pay less in a month when the total grows faster than the revenue.
- Your distributor. A commission or a yearly fee comes out before the money reaches you. On WBBT's Free plan the commission is 30%.
- Splits. Collaborators' shares are taken from what is left.
Assumed per-stream rates by platform
The figures the calculator multiplies your streams by, in US dollars. They are estimates, not rate cards, and platforms do not pay a fixed amount per stream.
| Platform | Low | Typical | High |
|---|---|---|---|
| Spotify | $0.002 | $0.00318 | $0.0045 |
| Apple Music | $0.005 | $0.00735 | $0.0105 |
| YouTube Music | $0.0011 | $0.0018 | $0.0027 |
| Amazon Music | $0.0028 | $0.0042 | $0.006 |
| Tidal | $0.008 | $0.012 | $0.017 |
| Deezer | $0.0042 | $0.00641 | $0.0092 |
| Pandora | $0.0008 | $0.00126 | $0.0019 |
| SoundCloud | $0.0015 | $0.0025 | $0.0038 |
| Beatport | $0.025 | $0.04 | $0.055 |
| TikTok | $0.0002 | $0.0003 | $0.0005 |
Questions about Spotify royalties
How much does Spotify pay per stream?
Spotify says it does not pay a fixed per-play or per-stream rate. It shares a pool of subscription and advertising revenue between rights holders by their share of streams, so the amount per stream changes from month to month and from country to country. This calculator uses an assumed range of $0.002 to $0.0045 per Spotify stream, with $0.00318 as the typical figure. Those are WBBT's own illustrative assumptions, not Spotify's numbers.
How many streams do you need to make money on Spotify?
Spotify announced in November 2023 that, from 2024, a track needs at least 1,000 streams in the previous 12 months to generate recorded royalties. Below that, a track earns no recorded royalties from Spotify. Check Spotify's current support pages, because policies can change.
How much are 100,000 Spotify streams worth?
At the calculator's typical Spotify figure and a high-income listener mix, 100,000 streams come to about $318.00 before commission. With a mostly emerging-market audience the same streams come to about $95.40. Treat both as estimates.
Does Spotify pay artists directly?
No. Spotify pays rights holders such as labels, publishers and distributors, who pay artists under their own agreements. If you release through a distributor, the distributor's statement is where your share appears, after any commission.
Why does my payout differ from the calculator?
The calculator multiplies your streams by an average. Your real payout depends on where your listeners are, how many were on free or paid accounts, what everyone else streamed that month, and the distributor's commission and fee. Use the result to compare scenarios, not to forecast a statement.
Does the distributor take a cut of Spotify earnings?
It depends on the plan. On WBBT's Free plan the commission is 30% of earnings. The paid artist plans have no commission and a yearly fee instead; the compare section of the calculator shows what you keep after either.
Read more
The full guide to how Spotify pays, with a worked example and Spotify's own pages, explains the pool and the streamshare. For payouts and splits see royalty splits and payouts, and compare plans on the pricing page. Spotify's own explanation is on its royalties page for artists.