This isn't a breakdown of which platform sounds the best or has the coolest interface. It's a comparison of what each major streaming service actually means for you as a creator: payout rates, audience reach, creator tools, discovery mechanics, and what to watch out for on each one.
How Streaming Royalties Actually Work
Before comparing platforms, it helps to understand why royalty rates vary so much and why a single per-stream number is often misleading. Most streaming platforms use what's called a pro-rata payment model. In this model, the platform pools all subscription and advertising revenue for a given period, takes its cut (usually around 30%), and divides the remaining money among all streams on the platform in proportion to how many times each track was played. Your payout per stream isn't a fixed rate – it fluctuates based on how much total revenue the platform generated that month and how many total streams were served across the entire catalog.
This is why quoting a single "per stream" rate is imprecise. Spotify's effective per-stream payout might be $0.003 in one month and $0.004 in another, depending on subscription revenue and total stream volume. The numbers you'll see quoted in most articles are averages over time, not guarantees. What matters more than the per-stream rate is the platform's total user base, subscription mix (paid subscribers pay out more per stream than free tier listeners), and whether your specific audience listens there.
There's also the question of how royalties are split before they reach you. The streaming platform pays a rights holder – typically your distributor, your label, or in some cases you directly. The distributor or label then pays you according to your agreement with them. The rates discussed below refer to what flows to the rights holder, not necessarily what lands in your pocket, which depends on your deal.
Spotify
Estimated per-stream payout: $0.003 – $0.005
Monthly active users: 600 million+
Paid subscribers: 240 million+
Spotify is where the majority of independent artists focus most of their streaming strategy, and for obvious reasons: it has the largest global user base of any music streaming platform and the most developed discovery ecosystem for new listeners. Editorial playlists, algorithmic playlists like Discover Weekly and Release Radar, and the Spotify for Artists dashboard make it the most powerful tool for organic growth currently available to independent musicians.
The per-stream payout is on the lower end of the major platforms, which is a trade-off worth understanding. Spotify's model prioritizes reach over per-play revenue, and for most artists building an audience, the discovery potential at scale outweighs the lower rate. A placement on a medium-sized editorial playlist can generate tens of thousands of streams from listeners who had never heard of you, which has real long-term value beyond the immediate royalty income.
Spotify for Artists gives you detailed analytics on listener demographics, playlist placements, and stream sources, and the Spotify Loud & Clear initiative has increased transparency around how their royalty model works. The platform also introduced an engagement-based royalty threshold in late 2023, requiring tracks to reach 1,000 streams per year before generating royalties – a change designed to reduce micro-payouts to fraudulent or low-activity catalog. For legitimately releasing artists, this threshold is easily cleared, but it's worth knowing.
Best for: Audience growth, discovery, algorithmic reach, and building a listener base from scratch.
Apple Music
Estimated per-stream payout: $0.007 – $0.01
Monthly active users: 88 million+
Paid subscribers: ~88 million (subscription-only, no free tier)
Apple Music pays roughly twice what Spotify pays per stream, and the reason is structural rather than generous: Apple Music has no free tier. Every listener is a paying subscriber, which means the per-stream pool is funded entirely by subscription revenue rather than being diluted by ad-supported free listening. If your audience skews toward Apple Music users, your per-stream earnings there will be meaningfully higher than the equivalent Spotify streams.
The discovery ecosystem is less developed than Spotify's. Apple Music's algorithm is functional but not as refined as Spotify's machine learning-driven recommendations, and editorial playlist placements are fewer and harder to come by for independent artists without label backing. The platform integrates tightly with Apple devices and the wider Apple ecosystem, which gives it strong retention among existing users but limits its organic discovery potential for new artists.
Apple Music for Artists provides solid analytics and Shazam data integration, which is useful for tracking where listeners are discovering your music before they even search for it. The platform also offers Spatial Audio and Dolby Atmos compatibility for artists who want to deliver an immersive listening experience, which is increasingly becoming a differentiator for certain genres.
Best for: Maximizing per-stream revenue, particularly if your existing audience is already iOS-heavy.
Tidal
Estimated per-stream payout: $0.007 – $0.013
Monthly active users: ~3 million
Paid subscribers: ~3 million
Tidal has the highest per-stream payout of any major streaming service, and like Apple Music, this is a product of its subscriber-only model with no free tier. It also claims to pass a higher percentage of subscription revenue to rights holders than some competitors. For the streams you do get on Tidal, you're earning more than on any other major platform. The significant limitation is that Tidal's user base is a fraction of Spotify's or Apple Music's – meaning the absolute dollar amount from Tidal streams will be modest for most independent artists regardless of the rate.
Tidal's identity has evolved over the years. It differentiates on audio quality (offering lossless and HiFi audio tiers) and has historically positioned itself as artist-friendly, including a direct-to-artist payment model called the "HiFi Plus" tier that routes a portion of a subscriber's payment directly to the artists they listen to most. This model, called User-Centric Payment, is meaningfully different from the standard pro-rata model and can benefit niche artists with dedicated listeners more than the mainstream system does.
It's a platform worth distributing to for catalog completeness and for the higher per-stream rate, but don't expect it to move the needle on audience discovery or significant volume.
Best for: Higher per-stream earnings from a small but loyal listenership; audiophile-leaning audiences.
Amazon Music
Estimated per-stream payout: $0.004 – $0.007
Monthly active users: 68 million+
Paid subscribers: Bundled with Amazon Prime
Amazon Music occupies a unique position because a significant portion of its user base accesses it as a feature bundled with Amazon Prime rather than as a dedicated music service. This affects both payout rates and listener behavior – Prime members may stream casually without strong engagement, while Amazon Music Unlimited subscribers tend to be more intentional listeners.
The per-stream payout falls between Spotify and Apple Music, and the platform offers Alexa voice integration, which gives it a meaningful presence in smart speaker listening. If your music fits formats that work well in background or ambient listening contexts – certain electronic, ambient, or instrumental music – Amazon Music's smart speaker integration can drive streams in a way other platforms don't.
Discovery and editorial playlist access for independent artists is more limited than Spotify. Amazon has been investing in its creator tools and playlist programming, but it remains behind in terms of the algorithmic discovery infrastructure that makes Spotify compelling for new artist growth.
Best for: Catalog presence and smart speaker audience; supplementary income stream for Prime-integrated listeners.
YouTube Music / YouTube
Estimated per-stream payout (YouTube Music): $0.002 – $0.005
Estimated per-view payout (YouTube ad-supported): $0.001 – $0.003
Monthly active users: 80 million+ (YouTube Music); 2.7 billion (YouTube)
YouTube is its own category. The distinction between YouTube Music and YouTube as a platform matters: YouTube Music is the subscription streaming service that competes directly with Spotify and Apple Music, while YouTube itself is the video platform where music videos, lyric videos, and audio uploads generate ad revenue separately through the Content ID system.
YouTube Music's per-stream rate is on the lower end, partly because the platform serves both paid and free (ad-supported) tiers. The payout per stream from a free-tier YouTube Music listen is significantly lower than from a paid subscriber. However, the YouTube ecosystem as a whole is uniquely valuable for music creators because of how deeply embedded music consumption is in the platform's general video audience. A well-performing official audio upload or lyric video on YouTube can reach listeners who aren't using any dedicated music streaming app.
For independent artists, Content ID monetization through YouTube is a separate and important revenue stream from streaming royalties. If you're distributing through a service like DistroKid, TuneCore, or CD Baby, make sure your distribution deal includes YouTube Content ID registration, which allows you to earn ad revenue when your music is used in other creators' videos. This can become a meaningful passive income stream if your music gets significant sync usage.
Best for: Broadest possible reach, video-integrated music promotion, Content ID passive income, and audience development through video content.
SoundCloud
Estimated per-stream payout (SoundCloud for Artists): $0.002 – $0.004
Monthly active users: 175 million+
Model: Hybrid free/paid, direct monetization for qualifying artists
SoundCloud is different from the major streaming platforms in one important way: it has historically been a discovery and community platform as much as a monetization one. SoundCloud's user base skews toward music fans who actively seek out independent, underground, and emerging artists, which gives it a discovery environment that's genuinely valuable for artists in those spaces. The community interaction – follows, reposts, comments on tracks – creates engagement that most other platforms don't have.
SoundCloud's direct monetization program (SoundCloud for Artists) allows qualifying artists to earn royalties from streams, but the payout rates are lower than Spotify or Apple Music, and the eligibility requirements mean not every account qualifies immediately. The platform also offers a fan-powered royalty model for SoundCloud Pro subscribers, similar in concept to Tidal's user-centric approach, which distributes payments based on what specific paying fans actually listen to.
For genre-specific communities – hip-hop, electronic music, lo-fi, experimental – SoundCloud retains genuine cultural relevance and discovery power that doesn't show up in the platform's raw user numbers. If your music fits those communities, it's worth investing in SoundCloud presence beyond just distribution.
Best for: Underground and independent artist discovery, community building, genre-specific audience development.
What to Watch Out For
Royalty rates aren't the only variable that affects what you actually earn. A few things worth paying attention to across all platforms:
Your distributor's cut matters as much as the platform's rate. Distributors typically take either a percentage of royalties (often 15–20%) or charge a flat annual fee. If you're on a percentage-based deal, the difference between distributor fees can add up to more than the difference between platform payout rates over time. Platforms like DistroKid (flat fee), TuneCore (flat fee), and CD Baby (percentage or flat depending on plan) all have meaningfully different long-term cost structures.
Artificial streaming – using bots or stream farms to inflate play counts – gets artists removed from platforms and has no genuine benefit, as the majority of platforms now have systems to identify and withhold payment for fraudulent streams. It's not a grey area; it's a violation of terms of service on every major platform.
Playlist pitching is platform-specific and the window matters. Spotify requires pitching to editorial playlists at least seven days before release through Spotify for Artists. Apple Music and other platforms have their own editorial contact processes, usually requiring distributor relationships or direct label contact. Missing the pitch window is one of the most common and avoidable mistakes independent artists make.
The Bottom Line for Independent Artists
No single platform is the right answer for every artist. The practical approach is to distribute everywhere, but promote strategically. Use Spotify for audience growth and algorithmic reach. Prioritize Apple Music for revenue if your existing audience is there. Keep SoundCloud active if your genre has community there. Register with YouTube Content ID and treat YouTube as a video platform, not just an audio one.
And keep your distributor costs in check because they're the most consistently controllable part of your streaming economics.
The artists who build sustainable streaming income aren't doing it by optimizing for one platform's payout rate. They're doing it by building a real audience that listens consistently across platforms and by understanding their own numbers well enough to make informed decisions about where to invest their promotional energy.
FAQ
Why does my per-stream payout vary month to month? Because streaming royalties are calculated based on your share of total streams relative to the platform's total revenue for that period. When total platform revenue goes up (like holiday seasons) or total stream volume goes down, your effective per-stream rate increases. When the platform signs more artists or sees a drop in subscriber growth, the rate can fall. It's structural, not arbitrary.
Should I choose a distributor that charges a flat fee or a percentage? For most artists releasing music consistently, a flat-fee distributor like DistroKid tends to be more cost-effective over time compared to a percentage deal. As your streams grow, a percentage cut grows with them while a flat fee stays constant. The trade-off is that flat-fee distributors sometimes offer less support and fewer services than percentage-based ones. Evaluate based on your current release volume and expected growth.
Does it matter which distributor I use for payouts? It matters in terms of your cut and payment speed, but the underlying streaming royalty rates are the same regardless of distributor – they're set by the platform. What changes is what percentage of those royalties reaches you after the distributor's fee. Read the royalty split terms of any distribution deal carefully before signing.
Is SoundCloud worth using if I'm not making money from it? For community and discovery in the right genres, yes. SoundCloud's value for independent artists has never been primarily monetary – it's been about reaching listeners who are specifically looking for emerging and independent music. If your genre has a SoundCloud community, maintaining a presence there serves a different purpose than monetization.
How do I get on algorithmic playlists like Spotify's Discover Weekly? Algorithmic playlists are driven by engagement signals, not manual curation. Tracks that get saved, added to personal playlists, and completed (not skipped) by listeners tend to get pushed into algorithmic playlists more often. Encouraging your existing audience to save and add your tracks – not just stream them – is the most actionable thing you can do to improve algorithmic performance.
📚 Sources
Spotify Loud & Clear – Royalty and Payout Transparency Report: https://loudandclear.byspotify.com
Apple Music for Artists – Overview and Analytics: https://artists.apple.com
Tidal for Artists – Royalty Model and HiFi Plus: https://tidal.com/for-artists
SoundCloud for Artists – Monetization Overview: https://artists.soundcloud.com
Music Business Worldwide – "Streaming Royalty Rate Comparison 2023": https://www.musicbusinessworldwide.com/streaming-royalty-rates-2023
DistroKid – Pricing and Royalty Split Overview: https://distrokid.com/vip/seven/1198443
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