The music streaming industry is big and filled with multiple players. Long established Spotify and resource rich Apple Music continue to be stark rivals but each with their own standout qualities. According to a report by Duetti, a data driven technology platform, released a report revealing that Apple Music pays artists twice as much as Spotify.
The music artists payout report by Duetti details the major revenue metric i.e., how much a streaming service pays per 1,000 streams to an artist. Below are the report details:
- Amazon: $8.80
- Apple Music: $6.20
- YouTube: $4.80
- Spotify: $3.00
The disparities in the payments artists’ receive shows the different business models at work. Apple Music is a fully paid subscription service and as a result pays higher compared to YouTube and Spotify. Whereas on the other hand, YouTube and Spotify offer both paid and ads-based subscription models.
Amazon pays the highest to music artists
It is unclear how and why Amazon is paying the highest to artists, compared to all the other music streaming services. It could likely be that the company is subsidizing its music streaming service to increase its user base.
9To5Mac received the following statement from Spotify upon the release of the Duetti report:
“These claims are ridiculous and unfounded. No streaming service pays per stream because that approach would incentivize streaming services to minimize streams. It would mean low engagement, fewer artist connections, and lower overall payouts. Instead, we take the opposite approach. We want users to engage more so that they pay more – both by sticking around and choosing premium. We are proud to be the leader in total payouts, but that doesn’t happen by accident; it’s by design.”
“Further, not only do we dispute the numbers and unattributed ‘guesses’ across the board, but we reject the premise of the report because it is out of step with the reality of how the industry works.”
