Which Music Streaming Services Pay Best?

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By:
Sean McCauley
Posted:
March 15, 2022


Which music streaming services pay best? It’s a simple question with simple answers. We’re not going to waste your time. Simply read on to find out which streaming service pays most to musicians and which service is best for you in 2022.


They aren’t in any order because which streaming service is best depends on several factors, such as region, volume, medium, and more. Be sure to read the whole article to learn which music streaming company is best for you.


All values are in USD as of March 2022.





Which Music Streaming Services Pay Best: Apple Music


Apple Music pays about $6.77 per 1000 streams.

That’s about $.007 USD for every stream or the better part of a penny.

Sounds awful, right? It’s actually much better than most.



Anghami, the Middle Eastern Streaming King (Streaming Shah?)


If you’re recording in Arabic, Farsi, Hebrew, or another Mid-East language, you’ll want to be on Anghami.

They don’t pay so well, though, at about one dollar every 1250 streams.

Not optimal.



Which Music Streaming Services Pay Most: Amazon


Amazon pays artists three different ways: Prime income, Unlimited income or so-called normal income. (Normal is when someone buys music from the Amazon store).


Regular ol’ Amazon


Per single, Amazon pays about $0.73 per single bought.

Most artists charge $0.99 per single, so Amazon takes 27%. You can decide what to charge per single, though, so this can change.


Amazon Prime


Prime customers get access to approx. 2 million songs.

If you’re paid out for people listening to your tracks on Amazon Prime, you’ll get 1.39 USD per 1,000 streams.

That’s .00139 dollars a stream, or about .14% of one penny.


Amazon Unlimited


Amazon Unlimited pays best from Amazon by far with approx. .0109580 per stream. That’s about a dollar for every hundred streams. A hundred-thousand streams per month and you’ll almost be making your rent money.

Which Music Streaming Services Pay Best: Deezer


Deezer’s about $4.12 per 1000 streams.

That’s a dollar for every 250.

That means if your single manages 100,000 streams, you’ll get a check for 400 ducats. Not too shabby.



Which Streaming Services Pay Artists Most: Google


To learn which music streaming service pays artists most you’ll have to go through another three from a single company, just like Amazon. This time, it’s Google.

Google Play


You can buy music through Google Play same as regular Amazon. Surprisingly, people do do this, too. Le Goog pays out about $.73 per single priced at $.99, so it’s comparable to the Amazon model.


Google Play All Access


There’s also Google Play All Access which is basically Google’s Spotify. It caters to monthly-fee members. You know the deal. They pay about $1.11 per 500 streams.




KKBox


KKBox is basically Spotify for Taiwan, Hong Kong, Japan, Malaysia and Singapore.

They dole out $0.0040014 per stream or about $1.00 per 250 streams. Just like Deezer, if your single manages 100,000 streams, you’ll get a check for 400 ducats. Not awful.


Which Music Streaming Services Pay Best?: Maybe Tidal


Tidal’s usually associated with higher sound quality. That’s a real thing, with them offering both HiFi and HiFi+ services, each at or above CD quality. If your ears are finely tuned, Tidal may be your thing. 


Not to mention, they also claim to pay artists best. What might that look like?


Tidal pays a whopping $1.37 for only 200 streams, which means you can probably pay your rent with just 200k streams a month, and that’s not totally unreasonable.



MEDIANET


MediaNet serves companies who want to pay to use music in their products. Those companies can either pay per stream or pay all at once. 


Streaming works out to about $1 per 1300 streams. Not great.

All-at-once, they pay about $0.70 per 99-cent single, so a little less than the other models but still competitive.




NetEase


NetEase is Chinese. $0.41 per 1000 streams, but at high volume.


If you’re producing pop, EDM, or another easy-access sound for the masses, that pittance will add up to something for you.




Which Music Streaming Services Pay Best?: Maybe Napster


Once upon a time, Napster was the wrench in the corporate-music machine. Private Internet users logged on and stole every bit of sound they wanted with impunity. Capital Records, Virgin, Tower, EMI … they all lost practically everything. Metallica had the cash to fund lawyers, so they sued.


That was the end of the era of piracy on Napster (also the end of the fantasy that Metallica weren’t businessmen).


Today, Napster are a legitimate streaming service with more than 5 million subscribers. They were bought by the MelodyVR virtual music venue in 2020, so there’s growth happening. They pay about $1 for every 125 streams, not bad at all, comparatively.


Which Music Streaming Services Pay Artists Most: (Not) Spotify


About $1.15 per 500 streams. It’s not great.


But Spotify is what most streamers use, so they get to shaft the artist more than most. Until you get more popular, you’ll prolly make most of your money from the Spot’. And that’s too bad.


Can’t not be on there, though. This entry might as well not even be on here. Which streaming service pays most? Not this one, but you need it, anyhow, so whatever.


TicTok: It’s About Volume


Don’t underestimate the power of distributing your music to TikTok! TikTok will pay the artist for every use of their song. And how much, exactly? Thank you for asking. It’s $0.0009714 per 1000 streams or about 1 penny for every 10,000. Still, all it takes is for just one viral vid to feature your music and wham! it’s payday.

Which Music Streaming Services Pay Best: YouTube, YouTube Red


You can start making cashola on YouTube right now. Content providers usually have this thing where you need 1000 subscribers and 4000 hours watched, etc etc, but musicians don’t gotta do that stuff. 


YT used to be the king of the hill for paying artists fairly. Today they pay about $3.24 per 1000 views, which still puts them higher than most streaming providers on this list.


YouTube Red pays better at about 1 dollar for every hundred streams. You hit 200k streams in one month and you might could quit your day job.


Which Music Streaming Service Pays Artists Best?


Which music streaming service pays best isn’t hard to figure once you’ve decided on your region, your format, and your volume. In case it didn’t show above, the more volume you produce in streams, the less per-stream you’re likely to make. Figures, right?


Nevertheless, now you know which services pay best for you and you can make your own informed decision. Happy recording! And don’t forget to distro your material as much as possible!