Sep 22, 2019

Question: How many times does a song need to stream on Spotify for an artist to earn $1?

Answer: 229 times

Here are the figures for the top music sites:

Questions:

  • Given their average payout for stream of $0.004 per song for Spotify, how many music streams would you have to listen to in order to cover a $9.95 monthly subscription?  
  • Why do you think that the streaming services have such different payouts per stream? 
  • Your friend says "I can make a good living just putting my music up on YouTube." Agree or disagree with him using the data provided above. 
  • Do you think the payouts per stream will increase or decrease in the future? 

Click here for the ready-to-go slides for this Question of the Day that you can use in your classroom.

Behind the numbers (from Visual Capitalist)

One would expect streaming services to have fairly similar payout rates every time a track is played, but this is not the case. In reality, the streaming rates of major players in the market – which have very similar catalogs – are all over the map.

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About the Author

Tim Ranzetta

Tim's saving habits started at seven when a neighbor with a broken hip gave him a dog walking job. Her recovery, which took almost a year, resulted in Tim getting to know the bank tellers quite well (and accumulating a savings account balance of over $300!). His recent entrepreneurial adventures have included driving a shredding truck, analyzing executive compensation packages for Fortune 500 companies and helping families make better college financing decisions. After volunteering in 2010 to create and teach a personal finance program at Eastside College Prep in East Palo Alto, Tim saw firsthand the impact of an engaging and activity-based curriculum, which inspired him to start a new non-profit, Next Gen Personal Finance.

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