For many artists, music streaming is the main avenue for getting paid — but how does it break down? With a plethora of services out there (Spotify, Apple Music, Pandora, Napster, TIDAL, etc.) it’s nice to know the exact payout per stream.
On average, Napster pays out the most at $0.019 per stream. There’s a catch though. To reach the minimum wage amount in the U.S. any given artist has to hit a total of 77,474 total plays per month on the platform.
TIDAL is next up, which has fallen slightly to $0.0125 per stream. Though this service, an artist needs to rack up 117,760 total plays to earn $1,472 per month. 
Apple Music comes in third, with a current rate of $0.00735 per stream. Artists on Apple Music need approximately 200,272 plays per month to hit the mark.
Spotify bumps ahead of Amazon in terms of payout, but Google Play and Deezer are a little more giving.
Artists would need well over 1 million plays per month to reach minimum wage via Pandora Premium.
YouTube dishes out a sad amount of money at just $0.00069 per play, requiring a whopping 2 million plays.
Music Streaming Rates
Source: Digital Music News | Photo via Beat
