What Streaming Platforms Pay Per Stream (2025) | Dynamoi
Statistics•
Updated
What Streaming Platforms Pay Per Stream (2025)
Actual RPM data from 388,000+ royalty transactions across 20+ platforms. See what Spotify, Apple Music, Pandora, and niche services really pay per 1,000 streams.
The Data Behind These Numbers
Most "per-stream payout" articles cite estimates or outdated figures. This analysis draws from actual royalty statements: 388,000+ transactions across 20+ platforms, covering April 2023 through September 2025.
The methodology is straightforward. For each platform, we calculate RPM (revenue per mille, or per 1,000 streams) by dividing total revenue by total streams, then multiplying by 1,000. This accounts for real-world variation across subscription tiers, geographic markets, and stream types.
These are net payouts to artists after distributor fees - what actually landed in bank accounts, not theoretical pool-split calculations.
Major Platform RPM Rates
The platforms most artists focus on, ranked by payout efficiency:
Platform
RPM (per 1,000 streams)
Notes
Apple Music/iTunes
$5.32
Consistent; spatial audio pays slightly higher
Amazon Music Unlimited
$9.20
Premium tier only; Prime Music pays less
Amazon Digital Services
$3.76
Blended across tiers
Spotify
$2.87
Varies heavily by listener geography and tier
Pandora
$2.07
Non-interactive radio; high volume, lower rate
YouTube Music
$1.50-3.00
Art Track vs. official uploads differ
Deezer
$3.91
Smaller volume but competitive rates
Tidal
$6.52
Highest mainstream rate; limited reach
Apple Music consistently pays nearly double Spotify's rate per stream. But Spotify generates significantly more total volume for most artists, so total revenue often favors Spotify despite lower per-stream efficiency.
High-RPM Niche Platforms
Some smaller platforms pay surprisingly well per stream, even if total volume is limited:
Platform
RPM (per 1,000 streams)
Context
Peloton
$34.47
Fitness streaming; licensing deals, not standard royalties
Gabb Music
$22.29
Kid-safe streaming service; small but growing
Slacker Radio
$10.34
LiveXLive-owned; radio-format payouts
Amazon Unlimited
$9.20
Premium subscription tier specifically
Peloton's $34+ RPM stands out dramatically. This reflects their licensing model - Peloton pays premium rates for workout-appropriate music with proper sync licensing. Getting music onto Peloton requires either direct licensing deals or distribution through services with fitness platform partnerships.
These platforms won't generate primary revenue for most artists, but they're meaningful bonuses when catalog reaches them.
Low-RPM Platforms
Not all streams are equal. Some platforms generate high visibility with minimal revenue:
Practical Implications
Don't optimize for per-stream rate. Chasing high-RPM platforms at the expense of reach makes no sense. 10,000 Spotify streams at $2.87 RPM beats 500 Tidal streams at $6.52 RPM.
Do understand geography matters. If your audience skews toward lower-RPM regions, your effective rates will be lower than headline figures suggest. This isn't a problem to solve - it's a reality to account for in projections.
Do track platform mix. Your distributor dashboard shows revenue by platform. If 80% of your streams come from Spotify but 60% of revenue comes from Apple Music, your Apple listeners are disproportionately valuable.
Don't expect consistency. RPMs fluctuate quarter to quarter based on pool sizes, subscriber mix, and platform policy changes. Use historical averages for projections, not single-month snapshots.
The streaming economy rewards reach and retention far more than platform selection. Get your music everywhere, build audience, and let platform distribution sort itself based on where listeners actually are.
Statistics•
Updated
What Streaming Platforms Pay Per Stream (2025)
Actual RPM data from 388,000+ royalty transactions across 20+ platforms. See what Spotify, Apple Music, Pandora, and niche services really pay per 1,000 streams.
The Data Behind These Numbers
Most "per-stream payout" articles cite estimates or outdated figures. This analysis draws from actual royalty statements: 388,000+ transactions across 20+ platforms, covering April 2023 through September 2025.
The methodology is straightforward. For each platform, we calculate RPM (revenue per mille, or per 1,000 streams) by dividing total revenue by total streams, then multiplying by 1,000. This accounts for real-world variation across subscription tiers, geographic markets, and stream types.
These are net payouts to artists after distributor fees - what actually landed in bank accounts, not theoretical pool-split calculations.
Major Platform RPM Rates
The platforms most artists focus on, ranked by payout efficiency:
Platform
RPM (per 1,000 streams)
Notes
Apple Music/iTunes
$5.32
Consistent; spatial audio pays slightly higher
Amazon Music Unlimited
$9.20
Premium tier only; Prime Music pays less
Amazon Digital Services
$3.76
Blended across tiers
Spotify
$2.87
Varies heavily by listener geography and tier
Pandora
$2.07
Non-interactive radio; high volume, lower rate
YouTube Music
$1.50-3.00
Art Track vs. official uploads differ
Deezer
$3.91
Smaller volume but competitive rates
Tidal
$6.52
Highest mainstream rate; limited reach
Apple Music consistently pays nearly double Spotify's rate per stream. But Spotify generates significantly more total volume for most artists, so total revenue often favors Spotify despite lower per-stream efficiency.
High-RPM Niche Platforms
Some smaller platforms pay surprisingly well per stream, even if total volume is limited:
Platform
RPM (per 1,000 streams)
Context
Peloton
$34.47
Fitness streaming; licensing deals, not standard royalties
Gabb Music
$22.29
Kid-safe streaming service; small but growing
Slacker Radio
$10.34
LiveXLive-owned; radio-format payouts
Amazon Unlimited
$9.20
Premium subscription tier specifically
Peloton's $34+ RPM stands out dramatically. This reflects their licensing model - Peloton pays premium rates for workout-appropriate music with proper sync licensing. Getting music onto Peloton requires either direct licensing deals or distribution through services with fitness platform partnerships.
These platforms won't generate primary revenue for most artists, but they're meaningful bonuses when catalog reaches them.
Low-RPM Platforms
Not all streams are equal. Some platforms generate high visibility with minimal revenue:
Practical Implications
Don't optimize for per-stream rate. Chasing high-RPM platforms at the expense of reach makes no sense. 10,000 Spotify streams at $2.87 RPM beats 500 Tidal streams at $6.52 RPM.
Do understand geography matters. If your audience skews toward lower-RPM regions, your effective rates will be lower than headline figures suggest. This isn't a problem to solve - it's a reality to account for in projections.
Do track platform mix. Your distributor dashboard shows revenue by platform. If 80% of your streams come from Spotify but 60% of revenue comes from Apple Music, your Apple listeners are disproportionately valuable.
Don't expect consistency. RPMs fluctuate quarter to quarter based on pool sizes, subscriber mix, and platform policy changes. Use historical averages for projections, not single-month snapshots.
The streaming economy rewards reach and retention far more than platform selection. Get your music everywhere, build audience, and let platform distribution sort itself based on where listeners actually are.
The takeaway isn't "Spotify bad, Apple good." It's that per-stream rate and total revenue are different metrics. An artist with 100,000 Spotify streams and 20,000 Apple Music streams earns roughly the same from each platform despite the 2x RPM difference.
Platform
RPM (per 1,000 streams)
Context
TikTok Audio Library
$0.004
Effectively promotional, not revenue
Meta (Facebook/Instagram)
$0.03
UGC revenue minimal
YouTube (Standard)
$0.50-1.50
Ad-supported varies wildly
Snap (Snapchat)
$0.02
Nascent monetization
TikTok's near-zero RPM is widely known but worth emphasizing: 5 million TikTok streams in this dataset generated $19 in royalties. TikTok is a promotional platform that can drive Spotify/Apple Music streams, not a revenue source itself.
The strategic implication: optimize for conversion from low-RPM discovery platforms to high-RPM streaming platforms. A TikTok trend that drives Apple Music saves is worth far more than TikTok streams alone.
Regional Platforms Worth Knowing
Distribution isn't just Spotify and Apple. These regional players matter for specific markets:
Platform
Region
RPM Range
Notes
Tencent Music
China
$0.20-0.50
QQ Music, Kugou, Kuwo combined
NetEase
China
$0.15-0.40
Cloud Music platform
JioSaavn
India
$0.10-0.30
Dominant in India
Anghami
MENA
$0.30-0.60
Middle East/North Africa focus
Boomplay
Africa
$0.15-0.35
Growing African market
KKBOX
Taiwan/SE Asia
$1.50-2.50
Strong in Taiwan, Hong Kong
RPMs are lower in emerging markets due to lower subscription prices and more ad-supported listening. But these regions represent massive audience growth - India and Southeast Asia in particular are adding streaming subscribers faster than Western markets.
An artist with strong appeal in these regions might see lower per-stream revenue but higher total streams, netting similar or greater total earnings.
What Determines Your Actual Rate
Published RPM figures are averages. Your actual rate depends on:
Listener geography. A US Premium Spotify subscriber generates roughly $0.004 per stream. A free-tier listener in a lower-GDP country might generate $0.0005. Same platform, 8x difference.
Subscription tier. Premium subscribers contribute more to royalty pools than ad-supported listeners. Artists with older, employed audiences (who disproportionately pay for Premium) see higher effective RPMs.
Stream duration. Streams under 30 seconds don't count for royalties on most platforms. Tracks that get skipped early generate nothing.
Release timing. Royalty pool sizes fluctuate. Holiday releases compete with higher streaming volume but the same pool, diluting per-stream value.
Playlist context. Some editorial playlists have listener demographics that skew toward Premium subscribers and high-RPM geographies.
There's no way to control most of these factors directly. But understanding them explains why two artists with identical stream counts might see different payouts.
The 1,000-Stream Threshold
As of 2024, Spotify requires tracks to reach 1,000 streams per year to generate royalties. Tracks below this threshold earn nothing, with that money redistributed to qualifying tracks.
This affects catalog tracks that trickle a few hundred streams annually. For actively promoted releases, the threshold is trivially easy to cross. For deep back-catalog, it may mean some tracks stop earning entirely.
Apple Music and other platforms haven't implemented similar thresholds, but the industry is watching Spotify's experiment.
The takeaway isn't "Spotify bad, Apple good." It's that per-stream rate and total revenue are different metrics. An artist with 100,000 Spotify streams and 20,000 Apple Music streams earns roughly the same from each platform despite the 2x RPM difference.
Platform
RPM (per 1,000 streams)
Context
TikTok Audio Library
$0.004
Effectively promotional, not revenue
Meta (Facebook/Instagram)
$0.03
UGC revenue minimal
YouTube (Standard)
$0.50-1.50
Ad-supported varies wildly
Snap (Snapchat)
$0.02
Nascent monetization
TikTok's near-zero RPM is widely known but worth emphasizing: 5 million TikTok streams in this dataset generated $19 in royalties. TikTok is a promotional platform that can drive Spotify/Apple Music streams, not a revenue source itself.
The strategic implication: optimize for conversion from low-RPM discovery platforms to high-RPM streaming platforms. A TikTok trend that drives Apple Music saves is worth far more than TikTok streams alone.
Regional Platforms Worth Knowing
Distribution isn't just Spotify and Apple. These regional players matter for specific markets:
Platform
Region
RPM Range
Notes
Tencent Music
China
$0.20-0.50
QQ Music, Kugou, Kuwo combined
NetEase
China
$0.15-0.40
Cloud Music platform
JioSaavn
India
$0.10-0.30
Dominant in India
Anghami
MENA
$0.30-0.60
Middle East/North Africa focus
Boomplay
Africa
$0.15-0.35
Growing African market
KKBOX
Taiwan/SE Asia
$1.50-2.50
Strong in Taiwan, Hong Kong
RPMs are lower in emerging markets due to lower subscription prices and more ad-supported listening. But these regions represent massive audience growth - India and Southeast Asia in particular are adding streaming subscribers faster than Western markets.
An artist with strong appeal in these regions might see lower per-stream revenue but higher total streams, netting similar or greater total earnings.
What Determines Your Actual Rate
Published RPM figures are averages. Your actual rate depends on:
Listener geography. A US Premium Spotify subscriber generates roughly $0.004 per stream. A free-tier listener in a lower-GDP country might generate $0.0005. Same platform, 8x difference.
Subscription tier. Premium subscribers contribute more to royalty pools than ad-supported listeners. Artists with older, employed audiences (who disproportionately pay for Premium) see higher effective RPMs.
Stream duration. Streams under 30 seconds don't count for royalties on most platforms. Tracks that get skipped early generate nothing.
Release timing. Royalty pool sizes fluctuate. Holiday releases compete with higher streaming volume but the same pool, diluting per-stream value.
Playlist context. Some editorial playlists have listener demographics that skew toward Premium subscribers and high-RPM geographies.
There's no way to control most of these factors directly. But understanding them explains why two artists with identical stream counts might see different payouts.
The 1,000-Stream Threshold
As of 2024, Spotify requires tracks to reach 1,000 streams per year to generate royalties. Tracks below this threshold earn nothing, with that money redistributed to qualifying tracks.
This affects catalog tracks that trickle a few hundred streams annually. For actively promoted releases, the threshold is trivially easy to cross. For deep back-catalog, it may mean some tracks stop earning entirely.
Apple Music and other platforms haven't implemented similar thresholds, but the industry is watching Spotify's experiment.
