Streaming Spotify — Among the Lowest Payouts

Spotify pays roughly $0.003–$0.005 per stream — about $3 per 1,000 streams in 2024, versus Apple Music's ~$6.20 and Amazon Music's ~$8.80. Since April 2024, tracks must hit 1,000 streams in 12 months to earn anything, a change one union estimated demonetized ~86% of the platform's catalogue. By one calculation it withheld ~$47 million from small independent artists, redirecting it to bigger ones. Spotify counters that it paid the industry a record $10 billion in 2024 and that "no streaming service pays per stream."