Streaming Royalty Calculator
Enter your streams and your split percentages. See what each collaborator earns on Spotify, Apple Music, YouTube Music, Tidal, and more. Free, no sign-up.
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The numbers behind this
Most streaming platforms pay between $0.001 and $0.01 per stream. Apple Music and Tidal sit at the top of that range, Spotify and Amazon in the middle, and Pandora at the bottom. No platform pays a fixed rate, because payouts are a share of a revenue pool divided by total plays.
How much do streaming platforms pay per stream?
How to use the Royalty Calculator
This tells you what your streams pay. If you want to know which royalty types you may not be registered to collect at all, that is a different question and the Royalty Registration Checklist answers it.
Enter your streams
Type your total stream count, or expand the per-platform breakdown if you know the split.
Set your deal
Pick your distributor (or enter a custom fee), and add your label share if you are signed.
Add collaborators
Toggle splits on, enter each collaborator and their percentage. Get per-person earnings instantly.
Frequently asked questions
How much does Spotify pay per stream?
Spotify pays approximately $0.003 to $0.005 per stream in 2026. The exact amount depends on the listener's country, subscription tier (Free vs Premium), and the total streaming pool that month. This calculator uses industry-average ranges.
Why is there a range and not an exact number?
No streaming platform pays a fixed per-stream rate. Rates fluctuate monthly based on total platform revenue, subscriber mix, and geographic distribution of listeners. We show the realistic range rather than a single misleading number. To see where your stream counts sit against genre-adjusted benchmarks, run the Stream Reality Check.
What's a distributor fee?
Most distributors (DistroKid, TuneCore, Amuse) charge 0% of streaming royalties. CD Baby takes 9%. If you are on a label deal, the label share is separate from the distributor fee. Distributor subscriptions are also a budget line item: the Budget Allocator folds them into the full release-spend picture.
How do splits affect my earnings?
If you co-wrote or co-produced a track, you share the royalties based on agreed percentages. This calculator shows exactly what each person takes home after distributor fees and label shares are applied. Use the Split Sheet to document your agreement, and the Release Planner to schedule when royalty statements actually land in your distributor account.
Are these numbers accurate?
These are estimates based on publicly reported industry averages. Your actual payouts will differ based on your specific audience geography, subscription tiers, and distribution agreement. Use this as a planning tool, not a financial projection. For a structured retrospective once the real numbers are in, run the Release Debrief 4–6 weeks after release.
What about publishing royalties?
This calculator covers recording royalties, which is what your distributor pays you. Publishing royalties are separate income streams that need you to be registered with a society, and the Royalty Registration Checklist walks through which of those apply to you and what each costs to join. If you also play shows, the Rate Card covers the other side of your income: live performance, session work and features.
How often do rates change?
We update the rates quarterly based on the latest available industry data. Rates last updated: 2026-05.
Why USD only?
Streaming platforms report and contract rates in USD globally. We show the dollar amount and let you convert in your head, rather than adding currency-conversion uncertainty on top of already-approximate rates. The relative breakdowns (who earns what share of the total) are correct in any currency.
More tools like this
Split Sheet
Create, send, and get split sheets signed in one place. Professional PDFs with built-in digital signing. Free, no account required.
OpenStream Check
Enter your streaming numbers. Get honest, genre-adjusted benchmarks and AI-powered recommendations for your next move.
OpenRoyalty Checklist
Answer a few questions and see which royalty registrations you may be missing, what each one collects, and what it costs to join. Most of them are free.
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