Apple Music pays approximately $0.006 to $0.011 per stream, depending on the listener's country and subscription tier.
This is higher than most other streaming platforms, but the actual payout varies significantly by geography.
Per-Stream Rates by Country (2024-2025 Data)
| Country | Avg Per-Stream Rate | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| United Kingdom | $0.0112 | Highest major market |
| Spain | $0.0071 | Strong European rate |
| Germany | $0.0071 | Consistent with EU average |
| Australia | $0.0068 | Above global average |
| United States | $0.0065 | Largest market, benchmark rate |
| France | $0.0065 | Matches US |
| Japan | $0.0057 | Strong but below Western rates |
| Brazil | $0.0054 | Growing market |
| Canada | $0.0052 | Below US rate |
| Mexico | $0.0029 | Lower regional rate |
| China | $0.0027 | Lower tier pricing market |
| Russia | $0.0018 | Lowest major market |
Rates calculated from Dynamoi's royalty statement database across real artist distributions (2024-2025).
Why Rates Vary by Country
Apple Music's per-stream payout depends on:
Subscription price in local currency. Apple charges different prices in different markets. A $10.99/month subscription in the US generates more per-stream revenue than a lower-priced subscription in an emerging market.
What This Means for Your Strategy
If you are choosing between promoting on Apple Music vs Spotify, the per-stream economics favor Apple:
- Apple Music US: ~$0.0065/stream
- Spotify US (premium): ~$0.004-$0.005/stream
- Spotify US (free tier): ~$0.001-$0.003/stream
Apple Music has no free tier, so every stream comes from a paying subscriber. This is why the average payout is higher.
Geographic targeting matters. If you can reach UK or Western European listeners on Apple Music, your per-stream revenue will be significantly higher than targeting emerging markets.
Important Caveats
These are gross payouts to the rights holder account. Your actual take depends on your label/distributor split. If your distributor takes 15% and your label takes 20%, your net is 68% of the gross.
Spatial Audio bonus. Apple pays up to 10% higher royalties for tracks available in Spatial Audio, regardless of whether the listener streams the Spatial version. This can push US rates above $0.007.
Rates are not static. Per-stream rates fluctuate based on total platform streams (denominator effect) and subscriber counts. More streams in a month with flat revenue = lower per-stream rate.