Which Music Streaming Service Is the Most Ethical?
After months of wrangling over Spotify’s business partnership with Joe Rogan, artists including Neil Young, India Ari and Crosby, Stills and Nash are pulling their music from the Spotify library and users are moving to other platforms. This outcome raises an important question: If you want to move to a more ethical platform, which platform should you move to?
There are plenty of viable alternatives to Spotify with similar features and song libraries, but while services like Apple Music, Amazon, and YouTube Music may not actively support comedians known for racist remarks and spreading misinformation about COVID, most music distribution platforms scam artists. .
If you’re turning down Spotify on moral grounds, it could be argued that the only “ethical” way to decide where you’re taking your money is to find a service that pays musicians fairly (or at least more than Spotify).
To that end, let’s take a look at how much money artists make on the biggest music streaming and purchase platforms, including average song stream royalty rates, revenue sharing from album and merchandise purchases, and ad partnership payouts and other monetization options where applicable. . .
Please note that these are estimates based on the most recent average payouts we could find. These numbers fluctuate and some artists will receive higher or lower payouts depending on factors such as listener/buyer location, song length, fees and taxes, and more.
How much do artists earn from Amazon Music and Amazon Prime?
- Average revenue per stream: $0.004
- Approximate streams per dollar earned: 250
- Other monetization options: Amazon also sells digital music, which is always the best option to support musicians as they get a higher share of the revenue, even after Amazon’s 27 percent share of the purchase. This means that for every $0.99 song bought on Amazon, the musician earns approximately $0.73. To put this into perspective, it would take 183 streams to earn as much as a single purchase.
How much do artists earn from Apple Music?
- Average revenue per stream: $0.007
- Approximate Number of Threads per $1 Earned: 143
- Other monetization options: It’s worth noting that Apple Music also cuts musicians’ ad revenue bonuses, but usually no more than a few cents.
How much do artists earn on Bandcamp?
- Average revenue per stream: Bandcamp doesn’t pay its musicians to stream, but there’s a catch: Users can only stream songs and albums for free a few times before they have to pay. After purchasing the songs, they can freely stream them on the website, mobile app, or download them for free with DRM and upload elsewhere.
- Approximate streams per dollar earned: NA
- Other monetization options: Musicians can sell digital tracks, albums, and physical goods like t-shirts, vinyl, and CDs on Bandcamp. The company takes 10 to 15% commission depending on the type of sale. So, for example, a $1 song earns the artist $0.85 per purchase and about $8.20 for a $12 CD. You can also tip the artists at the checkout a little more if you like.
How much do artists earn on Deezer?
- Average revenue per stream: $0.003
- Approximate Number of Threads per $1 Earned: 333
- Other monetization options: Deezer subscribers can give their monthly payment directly to performers on the platform. Deezer is taking its cut, of course, but it gives the public the opportunity to support their favorite musicians directly.
How much do artists earn from iHeartRadio?
- Average revenue per stream: $0.017
- Approximate streams per dollar earned: 59
- Other monetization options: Artists on iHeartRadio also receive a share of the company’s advertising revenue. However, as with Apple Music, this is a minor bonus for the average artist using the platform.
How much do artists make from Napster?
- Average revenue per stream: $0.019 per stream.
- Approximate streams per dollar earned: 53
- Other monetization options: no data.
How much do artists make on Pandora?
- Average revenue per stream: $0.00133
- Approximate streams per $1 earned: 752
- Other monetization options: no data
How much do artists make on Soundcloud?
- Average revenue per stream: $0.003
- Approximate Number of Threads per $1 Earned: 305
- Other monetization options: no data
How much do artists make on Spotify?
- Average revenue per stream: $0.004
- Approximate streams per dollar earned: 229
- Other monetization options: no data
How much do artists make on Tidal?
- Average revenue per stream: $0.0125 per stream.
- Approximate streams per dollar earned: 80
- Other monetization options: no data
How much do artists earn from YouTube and YouTube Music?
- Average revenue per stream: $0.008 per stream on the YouTube Music app or website; $0.00164 per view on the YouTube video app or YouTube.com.
- Estimated number of plays per dollar earned: 125 on the YouTube Music website or app; 610 views on Youtube (on the artist’s channel).
- Other monetization options: In addition to paying artists to stream and view the content they upload, YouTube also pays approximately $0.0007 to stream/view videos from other channels using their music. This requires YouTube’s content identification algorithm to match the copyrighted work or the copyright holder of the song to claim a monetized video using the artist’s song, but it ensures that artists receive at least minor compensation when someone else uses their work. It will take about 1,500 clicks from streams with a matching Content ID to earn $1.
What is the best streaming platform for artists?
Based on the business models described above, buying music through Bandcamp is the best way to support musicians. Bandcamp is not suitable for users who are looking for a subscription-based streaming model, but musicians earn more money per sale and have much more freedom on the platform than the streaming giants, which could make it the most ethical music service on this list (depending on how you define your ethics, obviously). The next best option is to buy music through Amazon, but we wouldn’t recommend streaming through Amazon if you’re concerned about how much money bands make.
To be frank, streaming is a bad way to support your favorite musicians, but if you’re determined to listen to your music this way, Napster’s streaming pay rate is the highest of any music streaming service at the time or at the time of writing. Artists on the platform make more money per stream than anywhere else – an irony given that the company started out as one of the biggest sources of music piracy a couple of decades ago.
iHeartRadio has the second highest pay-per-stream rate, and while the ad bonuses aren’t great, those few extra cents make it one of the best streaming services in terms of artist compensation.
Then there’s Deezer, which has lower streaming revenue than other services, but the ability to give artists a portion of your monthly subscription means they don’t have to rely on streaming alone to make money.
The catch is that Napster, iHeartRadio and Deezer have less music and fewer users than Spotify, Amazon, Apple Music or YouTube Music. This is why most users focus on this big four streaming services, but ethically the big four are the most exploitative.
If you absolutely must use one of the major streaming services, Apple Music is probably the “best”. Apple Music has the highest pay-per-stream rates of any major music streaming service, but not by much. And while kicking artists a piece of the advertising revenue pie is good, only the most popular artists will get a tangible share.
Make no mistake: almost all music distribution platforms should pay musicians more for streaming, but the point here is to showcase which services pay artists more overall, and hopefully help you find the best ways to support your favorite bands financially.