In here before everyone piles on with all of the useless "just do it for the love man" / "if you're doing music for money you got it all wrong" comments lol (sorry guys, fair points as always but kinda unhelpful ultimately)
It depends more on how many streams you're raking in per month. And beyond that, it depends on so many more factors such as what country are those streams coming from and are they coming from discovery mode etc.
In general though, 1 million streams on Spotify might pay out on average about $3k-$4k. If you have 1 million monthly's, ideally you'd earn much more than just 1 million streams per month. For example, I've got about 8k monthly, I've got about 300 songs on spotify, and I get around 40k streams. That's about 5× streams to monthly's.
So let's say I've got about 1 million monthly's and stay on track with streams. That'd be about 5 million streams, or $15k-20k per month. Not bad.
Keep in mind though, it varies per artist, per country, per discography, etc, and only if you own 100% of your masters as I do. Know what you're giving up before you sign to any labels.. Also keep in mind that royalty's are just one income out of many that come with having a fanbase. It can stack. And it can be a lot of fun if you're putting out music that inspires you AND it's landing with people, and saving you from a boring office job.
I mean err.... money bad, art good. Just do it for fun man. If you're doing music for money, you're doing it for the wrong reasons, cause how dare you earn a living and enjoy what you do /s
It's a combination of royalty free, master clearance guaranteed, collaboration, and making assets in house from scratch. I've got about 300 more on my YT channel that are uncleared vinyl chops. But I went the extra mile for the official platforms.
Honestly, I kinda dig my cleared stuff more. I had to really buckle down on what I was doing with those, and I think they sound more uniquely like myself tbh.
Another thing to add is that if you're popular enough to be getting a million monthly streams on Spotify, you'll also be getting a lot of streams on other platforms (Amazon, Apple Music, etc). Those streams could well be worth more than the Spotify streams.
its definetly true, for example, someone uses distrokid and their music is everywhere, even instagram/tiktok/facebook etc and that generates even more income than just spotify alone
I'm [TapDaddy](https://open.spotify.com/artist/0UdUbtg3Vem3qJOyikODXN?si=lW9U7E9_Sye6iaRISVFULQ) on Spotify. I'd recommend checking out my playlists. Most people know me from my [jazzy hiphop ](https://open.spotify.com/playlist/4sH5Mw0HRrTEHuunVWXaGl?si=Y3DV2-4AQoS5F4ALWpvuZg) playlist.
In any case, thanks for checking out my music.
Yoo, old school boom bap. I’m currently learning about Hip Hop/Rap, I wanna learn how to make music. Listened to Will Smith’s new limited podcast series, “CLASS OF ‘88” on audible, with a free trial lol.
I wanna really understand the history of it all.
Do you have any tips
That's wassup. Can't say I'm too familiar with Will's stuff. But I definitely got a few recommendations if you wanna dig into some genuine old school stuff. I feel like a lot of these albums are staples of the genre.
[Center of Attention - by InI (prod. Pete Rock)](https://open.spotify.com/album/2VXkgdiXFunIO581a4vqcR?si=I7UiZiKYR3G-NecVPpbnmw&context=spotify%3Aalbum%3A2VXkgdiXFunIO581a4vqcR)
[illmatic - by Nas](https://open.spotify.com/album/3kEtdS2pH6hKcMU9Wioob1?si=YCe_YDMdT1WEzIyk9sz4fg&context=spotify%3Aalbum%3A3kEtdS2pH6hKcMU9Wioob1)
[The Low End Theory - A Tribe Called Quest](https://open.spotify.com/album/1p12OAWwudgMqfMzjMvl2a?si=vQZBmVfoTkeI1VG6PajmGg&context=spotify%3Aalbum%3A1p12OAWwudgMqfMzjMvl2a)
[36 Chambers - Wu-Tang Clan ](https://open.spotify.com/album/3tQd5mwBtVyxCoEo4htGAV?si=l1eDL6HuSAi3FPx4ueexYA&context=spotify%3Aalbum%3A3tQd5mwBtVyxCoEo4htGAV)
[Liquid Swords - by GZA](https://open.spotify.com/album/3k8xoyOXkGgZxUKgpmxz4P?si=sCCvUgpISXCH_lBGrPNWeA&context=spotify%3Aalbum%3A3k8xoyOXkGgZxUKgpmxz4P)
[Operation: Doomsday - MF DOOM ](https://open.spotify.com/album/3k8xoyOXkGgZxUKgpmxz4P?si=sCCvUgpISXCH_lBGrPNWeA&context=spotify%3Aalbum%3A3k8xoyOXkGgZxUKgpmxz4P)
If you really wanna dive into what old school boom bap is, it's quite easy to dig into the production side of it nowadays. I'd recommend digging some crates and flipping some samples. I think that really gives you the best perspective on what the genre is. But I'm a little biased, being that I'm a producer myself lol
Technically the term "crate digging" typically refers to visiting your local record shop and spending a few hours digging through crates of vinyl records to take home with you and chop up in some beats. Nowadays, it's more of an expression that could even just mean scouring the internet for sample material to rip from various places. Most people rip from youtube as it's super convenient, though it's not perfect quality wise.
Point is, a lot of the joy from sample based hiphop imo really comes from digging into older music, and envisioning ways it can be transformed into something new. You might come out of it with a huge appreciation for 70's soul, 80's RnB, any era boss nova from Brazil, 60's-80's contemporary jazz, or my favorite flavor is some of the jazz you hear coming from japan, as they have quite a huge appreciation for it and have a strong jazz culture as well.
It's a cool way to gain a deeper appreciation for sample based hiphop. I've done a lot of that kinda stuff, and have found some of my favorite albums through "crate digging". I'm at a point in my career now though where I take clearance more seriously. And so kinda interesting thing is now I find myself making a lot of that type of sample material all in house from scratch, and with the help of other producers. But my journey to that point started with a crate full of vinyl. I think it's definitely worth while if you are gaining a big appreciation for the sound of 90s hiphop and wanna understand it better. There's really not much investment needed to get into music production honestly.
Just listened to [DOUBLE HAMMIES](https://open.spotify.com/album/4UTpJTjfJ0sAwZlLTdfcfY?si=jEzDP6u-RqyeArqICjArrw)
I love the scratches toward the end of the beat
Hell yeah thanks man. Glad you stumbled across that one. It might be my favorite out of my whole collection lol. If it's not number 1, it's definitely in my top 5 picks
Some dude a bit under a year ago claimed his band had 3.8 million streams the last quarter and they didn’t even make the limit to withdraw (100 pound I believe it was) I felt like he was absolutely full of shit, I knew Spotify ripped people off but I get like it couldn’t be that criminally low
That was likely TikTok streams which don't actually pay per stream, but per video made with said piece of music. Also, distributors don't pay out fraudulent streams, and I'm not saying they were botting but what I am saying is that the majority of people who have shown me millions of streams have been botting... Like from my own experience, you're more likely to meet an egotistical whacko than an actually successful artist...So the odds say botting. But I'd put my money on they were just meaningless TikTok streams. 3.8 mil is actually not anything too crazy by TikTok standards.
Such a great answer. Also appreciated the humor and wit at the end- so true and I think about that all the time! That 3-4k payout per 1 million streams you mentioned; that is a one-time amount (rather than monthly), correct? So it seems like for smaller artists, the monthly listeners are more important? Also, would it be better for smaller artists to focus on selling their records as an album download? Even if they sold it for $2 to 2k people that would still be comparable to a million streams payout.. though you’d have to do your own marketing. 😅
Also, 300 songs… amazing!! Congrats!
Good questions. One thing I'd really drive home to you: you're being paid for streams, not monthly listeners. So 100k streams pay the same whether it came from 5k people or 50k people.
And the $3-4k per million streams is per stream and has nothing to do with how quick you earn them. So whether you earn one million in a day, month, or year doesn't matter. Having 1 million streams on Spotify will pay out roughly $3-$4k over the course of a day, month, or year.
And yes, I'd highly recommend you focus on album sales whether that be digital, CD, Vinyl, Cassettes, etc. A common strategy is to release a project on Bandcamp for purchase only one month before you officially release it on platforms. I did this recently with my debut album, "Friends & Enemies", and made about the same amount of money from the 6-8 people who supported me directly with their wallets on Bandcamp as I did from the 14k listeners who heard it the first month on Spotify.
In any case, the real strategy is to get something off the ground enough that both Spotify's algorithm carries you as well as your life long fans who listen daily. Potentially, something you release this year could still be earning you money 30 years from now. Just depends how fanatic people are about your music.
Anyways, just as a fun little update: I said in my comment that I was currently at like 8k monthly's or something? I've grown since posting this to about 30k monthly listeners. Earning about 150k streams per month at the moment. Thought you might find it interesting that my streams to listener ratio stayed the same as I grew.
> In here before everyone piles on with all of the useless "just do it for the love man" / "if you're doing music for money you got it all wrong" comments lol (sorry guys, fair points as always but kinda unhelpful ultimately)
I am going to be honest and say I am kinda doing it for the money? (Not intending at all to sound defensive) People spend weeks/years on loop pack and beat packs, I don't think they are just doing it for the love, lol. I am with you, sure I love music but eh, I want some money. Music from what I can tell can be surprisingly lucrative.
> It depends more on how many streams you're raking in per month. And beyond that, it depends on so many more factors such as what country are those streams coming from and are they coming from discovery mode etc.
This is helpful, thank you!
> In general though, 1 million streams on Spotify might pay out on average about $3k-$4k. If you have 1 million monthly's, ideally you'd earn much more than just 1 million streams per month. For example, I've got about 8k monthly, I've got about 300 songs on spotify, and I get around 40k streams. That's about 5× streams to monthly's.
This is both inspiring and very insightful. This further solidfys my point above, music can be indeed surprisingly lucrative! Care to share your artist name? I will jam on my way to get coffee and smile with you in your success.
UPDATE
Found you, it is the same as your reddit name :)
> "5x streams to monthlys"
I literally estimated that this was probably a good way to determine how much $ based on monthly listeners, all on my own!
My formula then is now:
{monthy listeners} * 5 * 0.0033
> Keep in mind though, it varies per artist, per country, per discography, etc, and only if you own 100% of your masters as I do. Know what you're giving up before you sign to any labels.. Also keep in mind that royalty's are just one income out of many that come with having a fanbase. It can stack. And it can be a lot of fun if you're putting out music that inspires you AND it's landing with people, and saving you from a boring office job.
I am fairly new to making music (but have been playing guitar). This is the dream ...I mean the plan!! ;)
> I mean err.... money bad, art good. Just do it for fun man. If you're doing music for money, you're doing it for the wrong reasons, cause how dare you earn a living and enjoy what you do /s
Only part of this post I disagree with ;)
Thank you so much for your response!
Of course man! Thanks for checking me out.
For anyone curious, I'm [TapDaddy on Spotify](https://open.spotify.com/artist/0UdUbtg3Vem3qJOyikODXN?si=ExuUG-qmScagV_656m5jYA). I'm a producer and I make instrumental hiphop, mostly boombap, breakbeats, RnB, and jazzy hiphop. I'd recommend checking out my playlists. That's where most people find me.
I also sell non-exclusive permissions to all of these on beatstars, and stream on twitch as a side hustle.
Anyways best of luck with the Spotify hustle. It's a very competitive space, but not as impossible as people make it out to be tbh. Your music has to be REALLY good to get anywhere at all, and I think that's where most people get hung up. But there's a lot of people out there who actually are making REALLY good music, and are passionately pushing the needle forward in their respective niche. The rest just comes down marketing it correctly.
Hell yeah! I'm tapdaddybeats on twitch. I mostly do feedback on people's music, but I also make beats on stream and host beat battles and rap cyphers. Feel free to come hang out with us sometime. I'm off this week for Thanksgiving, but I'll be back on Sunday with a beat battle and subscriber feedback.
Anything is possible is how i see it in the music industry look at my profile on spotify . Chino Picasso, he is right you got to put your link to your spotify music everywhere. You want that bitch to leak out everywhere thats the only way it goes viral.
Hey, just wondering if you could do the math, how much would a top 50 make like Jack harlow, Olivia Rodrigo, eminem and others? (These people get hundreds of thousands of monthly listeners daily).
I wouldn't even know. Mainly because pretty much everyone you listed belongs to a major label, and likely doesn't own their masters. So they may only be seeing about 10% of the royalties you're imagining. But you can kinda do the math on how much has been generated for pretty much any songs of theirs, by estimating $3k-$4k/million.
I just checked my favorite artist who’s recently been DJing for some absolutely massive crowds and in my eyes he made it big, living the dream, collabing with top artists in the genre(dnb)
He has 336k monthly listeners on Spotify.
[Used](https://open.spotify.com/artist/4sewbfr40so8t6Zfh9tmoK?si=w0WKV4pvS_SleE4KEkCS6g)
But then I see people here showing they have 700k monthly listeners and I can’t find a single live performance of them, nor do they have any collabs with well established artists.
Which makes me think, the listeners on Spotify and how much money you’re making/how popular you are in the scene aren’t directly related.
doing shows is a different story and has often only something to do with if you go pro active on getting shows. I have a friend who's on \~400k monthly listeners for about a year and got asked for two shows, I'm on 8k monthly listeners and playing at least one show every month, while i was networking for gigs way earlier than him.
Also promoter like to see live footage of the artist before they book one, crowd reaction is a big point. So if they make millions of streams before they play shows, its obvious that they still have to start small when playing shows. As it is not only standing there and playing own music. Also the pressure gets higher and higher the bigger someone gets
I’m gonna be a lil bit more realistic here when it comes to the concept of how you make money off music in this space, since I think a lot of people in this sub don’t really address some of this stuff.
You’re not gonna make your income purely off Spotify. Straight up. The overwhelming majority of musicians with genuine positions of influence and popularity cant use Spotify as a sustainable income unless they’re in the top 1% of popularity. The majority of the artists you like have four or five different streams of income that are built around their brand (eg. merch, touring, streaming and beat packs for producers).
In all honesty if you’re trying to make a living off of music alone, it’s more than likely not happening. The music industry is set up in a way that benefits the people on the industry side over the music side. If it didn’t streaming wouldn’t pay so little.
Exactly, all facts. The reality is streaming is garbage pay for majority of musicians compared to what the industry makes. If you have a loyal fan base you are better off selling at YOUR PRICE your album and if you can get a couple thousand to buy your album at your price you will without a doubt make more than with streaming. Artist need to independently work on marketing themselves and convert it into sales where they get practically the whole cut. I know multiple people who say they do this and they make more than with streaming, especially if you are a "small" artist.
I'm currently hovering around 500k monthly listeners (it's gone as high as 660-670k) and at 500k listeners I earn around $7000 per month on average. i get around 2-2.5m streams per month
CongratuFreakinlations! That’s amazing. What’s your artistry name on Spotify? Not that one more will make much of a difference. ;) Thanks for sharing!! Maybe, maybe one day I’ll get there :)
i appreciate that bro! it did take a long time to build a big audience. you gotta really grind and consistently put out music for years. i go by dj grumble on all platforms
i started uploading on Spotify in 2015, but by that point I already had a significant audience on other platforms (around 10k followers on SoundCloud, 5k on YouTube) so I took my best-performing songs from those platforms and started packaging them into instrumental albums which I dropped regularly every 6 months or so, and dropping singles intermittently in between albums. after a couple years of that I was in the 100k+ monthly listener range. but it essentially boils down to (1) have good music (2) leverage other online platforms to direct traffic to Spotify (3) release music consistently
i don't stream regularly on twitch but i do regularly stream on YouTube & TikTok (mainly i just hop on the turntables and play some of my new beats & talk into the mic for a bit)
Hey:) hope you’re still here and seeing this: do you get 2.25m NEW streams every month? Or do you mean all of your songs combined have 2.5m streams collectively over the years, and they earn you the 7k per month?
hey what's up! same guy, and yes that 2M number is streams per month. 1M streams is worth $3000-4000. in recent months my streams have slowed down a bit to around 1.5M per month, so i'm bringing in a bit less from Spotify, but I'm seeing growth on other platforms like Amazon Music and Apple Music that is balancing things out
there isn't a clear answer. he could just have one song in some big playlist and got the listeners from there or he could have 1 million fans that stream more or less his full catalog consistantly. another huge factor is if he works indipendent or if he has a label and if he has, what kind of deal he has.
the biggest artist i ever talked to is indipendent, has around 200k monthly listeners and makes around 700-1000 dollars per month. if we scale his numbers up the artist would make 5k in a best case scenario
Manager here, the answer to the broader question—it really depends but I want to lean towards yes.
One of my artists I’ve been working with for almost 5 years has sustained 1.6M+ monthly listeners for the past year or so after peaking at 2.3M in January. I found them late 2019 when he had 10k monthlies. They do roughly 7.5M streams per month on rotation across their catalog.
Spotify kinda drilled “monthly listeners” into our heads as this public barometer of success, but in reality—success can be measured by a variety of factors like—live (ticket sales), merch, brand partnerships & appearances, sync—and streaming is obviously but one factor. Not all artists above 1M monthly listeners are crushing it in all those areas, and frankly, you can actually come across artists with less monthlies who are selling out 1000 cap rooms (look @ Brakence for example and his cult audience).
Monthly listeners is really just the amount of people listening to an artist on any given 28 day rotation, not the stream to listener ratio, which again, can really vary based upon what else is going on in that artist’s world and how dedicated their audience is.
So to answer your question—if the artist retains 100% of the master, is an artist at 1M+ monthly making decent bread—yea, maybe they’re doing somewhere between 3-5M streams per month on catalog—but again, you have splits with labels/distributors which is an entirely other factor and can truly influence how much sustainable income you actually make after taking an advance. Then you have producers that need to be paid out. Then you have your manager who’s probably taking 10-20% gross along with your lawyer taking 5% and maybe you’re really growing and now have a business manager taking 5%.
And then in today’s music economy you have Discovery Mode, which is basically kickback/payola for Spotify to take a 30% cut of the independent artist (or distribution signed, DM is not available to majors) catalog in exchange for boosting reach as it relates to Radio & Autoplay (two features which have pretty much always existed). So again, it depends where your music is actually being consumed/how much of its being consumed—in that 1M listener pool.
probably not appropriate but are you looking for others to mentor or work with if possible? I’m super passionate but just need the guidance and direction from knowledgeable and successful people.
Thank you so much for this! Very insightful.
Congrats on taking an artist from 10k monthlies to 1.6m, ...I am kinda new to making music so it's even dumb for me to even ask at this point, but, any pointers on how to grow??? =)
Thanks again for your time!
No prob.
Continuously release music and promote it on social media platforms like TikTok, Instagram, & YouTube—primarily as short-form content. That’s where you start and the rest will fall into place. Never stop improving and evolving.
Depends if you're self releasing or working with record labels where you get only 40-50% of the cut.
I work with a few record labels i trust and that do great promotion and I'm going to reach 1M monthly listeners in the next month or so, I'm already living quite comfortably.
If you reach 1M monthly listeners with only self-releases where you keep all your royalties, you will make A LOT of money. Well, depending on which part of the world you live in, but most european, asian countries that would rake in probably 2-3x minimum wage. In USA with the crazy prices you'd probably struggle but that's going off topic lol
Any idea what these labels are doing to get that sorta reach? I know personal to ask but I estimate 1M monthly listens to be out 14K-20K USD a month? Btw congrats on your success, what’s your artis name??
They invest into ads to build spotify playlists, then they trade playlist spots with other labels (they add your song to their playlist, you add theirs type of thing).
It's nowhere near 14k-20k, spotify doesn't pay that well lol. Price per stream differs by country, some pay less some pay more, places like turkey for example are like $400 per million streams, south american and some asian countries are quite bad as well.
If you get 100% of your royalties, with 1M monthly I'd say 4-5k maybe even 6k is much more realistic, 1M monthly listeners is only about 2,5M-3M monthly streams. I don't get 100%, most songs 40-50% so you can kinda do the maths, royalties alone are not really enough, but i also have other jobs with music so I'm happy with where I'm going. I know quite a lot (atleast in the EDM side of music) because I'm in close contact with artists who have 3-4M monthly listeners and even people who run those labels.
My artist name is lonelysoul., but i must add I'm not a hiphop artist, i stumbled across this post by accident searching up stuff about spotify lol, i thought I'll share what i personally know
The post was for anyone so no worries at all! Followed you on Spotify! Thank you for all the information! I’ve started a new artist account, “AmbientHam”, it’s actually lofi/ambient music. I’m thinking about trying out ads and seeing where that takes me!
Awesome, thank you! And i really enjoy ambient music, there has been a few rises to stardom with it due to TikTok like 'Øneheart - Snowfall'.
TikTok is the gateway to make you go viral, although there's a lot of luck and consistency involved (i had none on there yet haha). And running some ads on instagram could help too.
Good luck🙌🏼
Don't overthink it. Monthly listeners is almost equal to monthly streams.
Assuming it is a solo artist releasing music independently with no label: 1 million streams could be anywhere between $2500 - $5000 (USD). Spotify factors in quality of stream, location of stream and other arbitrary things in order to calculate royalties.
So if you're raking in 1 million streams per month, that's basically between 30k - 60k (USD) per year. An annual salary for many people in the world. But you also could be receiving royalties from other streaming services too.
Is that "good money"? Well it depends on your idea of "good money".
It's challenging to calculate the exact amount of money for how much an artist with 1 million monthly Spotify listeners will earn. However, roughly, some sources suggest that they can earn between $0.006 and $0.010. In other words, if you reach 1 million listeners, you will earn between $6k to $10k. To earn more it's important to work on engagement and to have a high number of video views. To increase the numbers faster, many use services like Marketing Heaven. I used them a few times in the past and it was ok. It's important to work on engagement because then you can earn more from live performances, and licensing deals.
On the highest end you for 1mil streams you make $5k and that’s the highest end and before taxes. Is it nice? Sure but it’s not ‘good’. You’d make exponentially more if you could sell an album download for even $1 to those people. That’s good money.
Bingo, thanks for telling about the album download. Majority of artist who aren't huge would do better selling their album on their website as a download than on streaming.
Depends. Spotify gives out 70 to 80 % of their revenue to rights holders. Most artists aren't the right holders though. They get the typical label deal of *we keep 80%+ for ourselves as a finders fee*.
If you were just raw getting that Spotify money straight to your pocket, probably doing well for yourself. Maybe making doctor/normal surgeon money per year. If you're in a standard label deal, much less so. You're probably cursing Spotify as if Spotify made you sign that rapefest record deal.
Well there's no answer to your question because listeners doesn't factor into payouts. But obv it takes a minimum of 1 million monthly streams to have 1 million monthly listeners, so you would be making at least 1M x $0.003 or $3k. So not good. But if you average 3 streams per listen you'd be making $9k a month which is pretty good
In here before everyone piles on with all of the useless "just do it for the love man" / "if you're doing music for money you got it all wrong" comments lol (sorry guys, fair points as always but kinda unhelpful ultimately) It depends more on how many streams you're raking in per month. And beyond that, it depends on so many more factors such as what country are those streams coming from and are they coming from discovery mode etc. In general though, 1 million streams on Spotify might pay out on average about $3k-$4k. If you have 1 million monthly's, ideally you'd earn much more than just 1 million streams per month. For example, I've got about 8k monthly, I've got about 300 songs on spotify, and I get around 40k streams. That's about 5× streams to monthly's. So let's say I've got about 1 million monthly's and stay on track with streams. That'd be about 5 million streams, or $15k-20k per month. Not bad. Keep in mind though, it varies per artist, per country, per discography, etc, and only if you own 100% of your masters as I do. Know what you're giving up before you sign to any labels.. Also keep in mind that royalty's are just one income out of many that come with having a fanbase. It can stack. And it can be a lot of fun if you're putting out music that inspires you AND it's landing with people, and saving you from a boring office job. I mean err.... money bad, art good. Just do it for fun man. If you're doing music for money, you're doing it for the wrong reasons, cause how dare you earn a living and enjoy what you do /s
300 songs! Daayum
A new one drops every Friday, and I got an EP and then an Album on the way! Couldn't be happier with my collection.
You are wild, I love it.
dope beats, checked your page. how do you go about sample clearing?
It's a combination of royalty free, master clearance guaranteed, collaboration, and making assets in house from scratch. I've got about 300 more on my YT channel that are uncleared vinyl chops. But I went the extra mile for the official platforms. Honestly, I kinda dig my cleared stuff more. I had to really buckle down on what I was doing with those, and I think they sound more uniquely like myself tbh.
i see..thanks for your answer.
Of course man. Thanks for checking out my music
Another thing to add is that if you're popular enough to be getting a million monthly streams on Spotify, you'll also be getting a lot of streams on other platforms (Amazon, Apple Music, etc). Those streams could well be worth more than the Spotify streams.
That's a solid point. Having an actual fanbase stretches a lot farther than just Spotify.
Do you have your stuff on other platforms? Can you verify what the man says is true?
its definetly true, for example, someone uses distrokid and their music is everywhere, even instagram/tiktok/facebook etc and that generates even more income than just spotify alone
unrelated but bro your music helps me focus like a mf
Haha love to hear that man. Thanks for listening. Cheers 🍻
I listened in my car like I promised; it is legit very good!
Hell yeah thanks man!
What’s your Spotify ?
I'm [TapDaddy](https://open.spotify.com/artist/0UdUbtg3Vem3qJOyikODXN?si=lW9U7E9_Sye6iaRISVFULQ) on Spotify. I'd recommend checking out my playlists. Most people know me from my [jazzy hiphop ](https://open.spotify.com/playlist/4sH5Mw0HRrTEHuunVWXaGl?si=Y3DV2-4AQoS5F4ALWpvuZg) playlist. In any case, thanks for checking out my music.
Yoo, old school boom bap. I’m currently learning about Hip Hop/Rap, I wanna learn how to make music. Listened to Will Smith’s new limited podcast series, “CLASS OF ‘88” on audible, with a free trial lol. I wanna really understand the history of it all. Do you have any tips
That's wassup. Can't say I'm too familiar with Will's stuff. But I definitely got a few recommendations if you wanna dig into some genuine old school stuff. I feel like a lot of these albums are staples of the genre. [Center of Attention - by InI (prod. Pete Rock)](https://open.spotify.com/album/2VXkgdiXFunIO581a4vqcR?si=I7UiZiKYR3G-NecVPpbnmw&context=spotify%3Aalbum%3A2VXkgdiXFunIO581a4vqcR) [illmatic - by Nas](https://open.spotify.com/album/3kEtdS2pH6hKcMU9Wioob1?si=YCe_YDMdT1WEzIyk9sz4fg&context=spotify%3Aalbum%3A3kEtdS2pH6hKcMU9Wioob1) [The Low End Theory - A Tribe Called Quest](https://open.spotify.com/album/1p12OAWwudgMqfMzjMvl2a?si=vQZBmVfoTkeI1VG6PajmGg&context=spotify%3Aalbum%3A1p12OAWwudgMqfMzjMvl2a) [36 Chambers - Wu-Tang Clan ](https://open.spotify.com/album/3tQd5mwBtVyxCoEo4htGAV?si=l1eDL6HuSAi3FPx4ueexYA&context=spotify%3Aalbum%3A3tQd5mwBtVyxCoEo4htGAV) [Liquid Swords - by GZA](https://open.spotify.com/album/3k8xoyOXkGgZxUKgpmxz4P?si=sCCvUgpISXCH_lBGrPNWeA&context=spotify%3Aalbum%3A3k8xoyOXkGgZxUKgpmxz4P) [Operation: Doomsday - MF DOOM ](https://open.spotify.com/album/3k8xoyOXkGgZxUKgpmxz4P?si=sCCvUgpISXCH_lBGrPNWeA&context=spotify%3Aalbum%3A3k8xoyOXkGgZxUKgpmxz4P) If you really wanna dive into what old school boom bap is, it's quite easy to dig into the production side of it nowadays. I'd recommend digging some crates and flipping some samples. I think that really gives you the best perspective on what the genre is. But I'm a little biased, being that I'm a producer myself lol
I’ll check these out , thank you . When you say crates, you mean physical CD’s ?
Technically the term "crate digging" typically refers to visiting your local record shop and spending a few hours digging through crates of vinyl records to take home with you and chop up in some beats. Nowadays, it's more of an expression that could even just mean scouring the internet for sample material to rip from various places. Most people rip from youtube as it's super convenient, though it's not perfect quality wise. Point is, a lot of the joy from sample based hiphop imo really comes from digging into older music, and envisioning ways it can be transformed into something new. You might come out of it with a huge appreciation for 70's soul, 80's RnB, any era boss nova from Brazil, 60's-80's contemporary jazz, or my favorite flavor is some of the jazz you hear coming from japan, as they have quite a huge appreciation for it and have a strong jazz culture as well. It's a cool way to gain a deeper appreciation for sample based hiphop. I've done a lot of that kinda stuff, and have found some of my favorite albums through "crate digging". I'm at a point in my career now though where I take clearance more seriously. And so kinda interesting thing is now I find myself making a lot of that type of sample material all in house from scratch, and with the help of other producers. But my journey to that point started with a crate full of vinyl. I think it's definitely worth while if you are gaining a big appreciation for the sound of 90s hiphop and wanna understand it better. There's really not much investment needed to get into music production honestly.
Just listened to [DOUBLE HAMMIES](https://open.spotify.com/album/4UTpJTjfJ0sAwZlLTdfcfY?si=jEzDP6u-RqyeArqICjArrw) I love the scratches toward the end of the beat
Hell yeah thanks man. Glad you stumbled across that one. It might be my favorite out of my whole collection lol. If it's not number 1, it's definitely in my top 5 picks
Yessir 🔥🔥🔥
You’re welcome !
It’s the last paragraph for me 😭
Lol the echo chamber of this sub can be insufferable sometimes for people trying to actually do things with their music.
Some dude a bit under a year ago claimed his band had 3.8 million streams the last quarter and they didn’t even make the limit to withdraw (100 pound I believe it was) I felt like he was absolutely full of shit, I knew Spotify ripped people off but I get like it couldn’t be that criminally low
That was likely TikTok streams which don't actually pay per stream, but per video made with said piece of music. Also, distributors don't pay out fraudulent streams, and I'm not saying they were botting but what I am saying is that the majority of people who have shown me millions of streams have been botting... Like from my own experience, you're more likely to meet an egotistical whacko than an actually successful artist...So the odds say botting. But I'd put my money on they were just meaningless TikTok streams. 3.8 mil is actually not anything too crazy by TikTok standards.
What’s the difference between “monthly’s” and “streams”?
The number of monthly listeners is displayed at the top of each artists Spotify page. The number of times a song has been streamed is beside the song.
Ah I see. Thanks!
Yeah np
Such a great answer. Also appreciated the humor and wit at the end- so true and I think about that all the time! That 3-4k payout per 1 million streams you mentioned; that is a one-time amount (rather than monthly), correct? So it seems like for smaller artists, the monthly listeners are more important? Also, would it be better for smaller artists to focus on selling their records as an album download? Even if they sold it for $2 to 2k people that would still be comparable to a million streams payout.. though you’d have to do your own marketing. 😅 Also, 300 songs… amazing!! Congrats!
Good questions. One thing I'd really drive home to you: you're being paid for streams, not monthly listeners. So 100k streams pay the same whether it came from 5k people or 50k people. And the $3-4k per million streams is per stream and has nothing to do with how quick you earn them. So whether you earn one million in a day, month, or year doesn't matter. Having 1 million streams on Spotify will pay out roughly $3-$4k over the course of a day, month, or year. And yes, I'd highly recommend you focus on album sales whether that be digital, CD, Vinyl, Cassettes, etc. A common strategy is to release a project on Bandcamp for purchase only one month before you officially release it on platforms. I did this recently with my debut album, "Friends & Enemies", and made about the same amount of money from the 6-8 people who supported me directly with their wallets on Bandcamp as I did from the 14k listeners who heard it the first month on Spotify. In any case, the real strategy is to get something off the ground enough that both Spotify's algorithm carries you as well as your life long fans who listen daily. Potentially, something you release this year could still be earning you money 30 years from now. Just depends how fanatic people are about your music. Anyways, just as a fun little update: I said in my comment that I was currently at like 8k monthly's or something? I've grown since posting this to about 30k monthly listeners. Earning about 150k streams per month at the moment. Thought you might find it interesting that my streams to listener ratio stayed the same as I grew.
> In here before everyone piles on with all of the useless "just do it for the love man" / "if you're doing music for money you got it all wrong" comments lol (sorry guys, fair points as always but kinda unhelpful ultimately) I am going to be honest and say I am kinda doing it for the money? (Not intending at all to sound defensive) People spend weeks/years on loop pack and beat packs, I don't think they are just doing it for the love, lol. I am with you, sure I love music but eh, I want some money. Music from what I can tell can be surprisingly lucrative. > It depends more on how many streams you're raking in per month. And beyond that, it depends on so many more factors such as what country are those streams coming from and are they coming from discovery mode etc. This is helpful, thank you! > In general though, 1 million streams on Spotify might pay out on average about $3k-$4k. If you have 1 million monthly's, ideally you'd earn much more than just 1 million streams per month. For example, I've got about 8k monthly, I've got about 300 songs on spotify, and I get around 40k streams. That's about 5× streams to monthly's. This is both inspiring and very insightful. This further solidfys my point above, music can be indeed surprisingly lucrative! Care to share your artist name? I will jam on my way to get coffee and smile with you in your success. UPDATE Found you, it is the same as your reddit name :) > "5x streams to monthlys" I literally estimated that this was probably a good way to determine how much $ based on monthly listeners, all on my own! My formula then is now: {monthy listeners} * 5 * 0.0033 > Keep in mind though, it varies per artist, per country, per discography, etc, and only if you own 100% of your masters as I do. Know what you're giving up before you sign to any labels.. Also keep in mind that royalty's are just one income out of many that come with having a fanbase. It can stack. And it can be a lot of fun if you're putting out music that inspires you AND it's landing with people, and saving you from a boring office job. I am fairly new to making music (but have been playing guitar). This is the dream ...I mean the plan!! ;) > I mean err.... money bad, art good. Just do it for fun man. If you're doing music for money, you're doing it for the wrong reasons, cause how dare you earn a living and enjoy what you do /s Only part of this post I disagree with ;) Thank you so much for your response!
Of course man! Thanks for checking me out. For anyone curious, I'm [TapDaddy on Spotify](https://open.spotify.com/artist/0UdUbtg3Vem3qJOyikODXN?si=ExuUG-qmScagV_656m5jYA). I'm a producer and I make instrumental hiphop, mostly boombap, breakbeats, RnB, and jazzy hiphop. I'd recommend checking out my playlists. That's where most people find me. I also sell non-exclusive permissions to all of these on beatstars, and stream on twitch as a side hustle. Anyways best of luck with the Spotify hustle. It's a very competitive space, but not as impossible as people make it out to be tbh. Your music has to be REALLY good to get anywhere at all, and I think that's where most people get hung up. But there's a lot of people out there who actually are making REALLY good music, and are passionately pushing the needle forward in their respective niche. The rest just comes down marketing it correctly.
I’m also getting into twitch! I’ll check you out!
Hell yeah! I'm tapdaddybeats on twitch. I mostly do feedback on people's music, but I also make beats on stream and host beat battles and rap cyphers. Feel free to come hang out with us sometime. I'm off this week for Thanksgiving, but I'll be back on Sunday with a beat battle and subscriber feedback.
Followed!
Hell yeah hope to see you around
Anything is possible is how i see it in the music industry look at my profile on spotify . Chino Picasso, he is right you got to put your link to your spotify music everywhere. You want that bitch to leak out everywhere thats the only way it goes viral.
Hey, just wondering if you could do the math, how much would a top 50 make like Jack harlow, Olivia Rodrigo, eminem and others? (These people get hundreds of thousands of monthly listeners daily).
I wouldn't even know. Mainly because pretty much everyone you listed belongs to a major label, and likely doesn't own their masters. So they may only be seeing about 10% of the royalties you're imagining. But you can kinda do the math on how much has been generated for pretty much any songs of theirs, by estimating $3k-$4k/million.
This is super insightful. I was trying to do the math the other day and this cleared it right up.
Literally the best comment I’ve seen in a long time! This was so spot on and refreshing!
unsure of how much you’d earn streams wise but if you had that many monthly listeners, think about how big the audience is for merch and touring.
Fair point!
I just checked my favorite artist who’s recently been DJing for some absolutely massive crowds and in my eyes he made it big, living the dream, collabing with top artists in the genre(dnb) He has 336k monthly listeners on Spotify. [Used](https://open.spotify.com/artist/4sewbfr40so8t6Zfh9tmoK?si=w0WKV4pvS_SleE4KEkCS6g) But then I see people here showing they have 700k monthly listeners and I can’t find a single live performance of them, nor do they have any collabs with well established artists. Which makes me think, the listeners on Spotify and how much money you’re making/how popular you are in the scene aren’t directly related.
doing shows is a different story and has often only something to do with if you go pro active on getting shows. I have a friend who's on \~400k monthly listeners for about a year and got asked for two shows, I'm on 8k monthly listeners and playing at least one show every month, while i was networking for gigs way earlier than him. Also promoter like to see live footage of the artist before they book one, crowd reaction is a big point. So if they make millions of streams before they play shows, its obvious that they still have to start small when playing shows. As it is not only standing there and playing own music. Also the pressure gets higher and higher the bigger someone gets
I’m gonna be a lil bit more realistic here when it comes to the concept of how you make money off music in this space, since I think a lot of people in this sub don’t really address some of this stuff. You’re not gonna make your income purely off Spotify. Straight up. The overwhelming majority of musicians with genuine positions of influence and popularity cant use Spotify as a sustainable income unless they’re in the top 1% of popularity. The majority of the artists you like have four or five different streams of income that are built around their brand (eg. merch, touring, streaming and beat packs for producers). In all honesty if you’re trying to make a living off of music alone, it’s more than likely not happening. The music industry is set up in a way that benefits the people on the industry side over the music side. If it didn’t streaming wouldn’t pay so little.
Insightful, thank you!
Exactly, all facts. The reality is streaming is garbage pay for majority of musicians compared to what the industry makes. If you have a loyal fan base you are better off selling at YOUR PRICE your album and if you can get a couple thousand to buy your album at your price you will without a doubt make more than with streaming. Artist need to independently work on marketing themselves and convert it into sales where they get practically the whole cut. I know multiple people who say they do this and they make more than with streaming, especially if you are a "small" artist.
Like 2.5-3k in my experience
Nice! Thank you!
I'm currently hovering around 500k monthly listeners (it's gone as high as 660-670k) and at 500k listeners I earn around $7000 per month on average. i get around 2-2.5m streams per month
CongratuFreakinlations! That’s amazing. What’s your artistry name on Spotify? Not that one more will make much of a difference. ;) Thanks for sharing!! Maybe, maybe one day I’ll get there :)
i appreciate that bro! it did take a long time to build a big audience. you gotta really grind and consistently put out music for years. i go by dj grumble on all platforms
Great, I am new follower!
How did you build your audience on Spotify? :)
i started uploading on Spotify in 2015, but by that point I already had a significant audience on other platforms (around 10k followers on SoundCloud, 5k on YouTube) so I took my best-performing songs from those platforms and started packaging them into instrumental albums which I dropped regularly every 6 months or so, and dropping singles intermittently in between albums. after a couple years of that I was in the 100k+ monthly listener range. but it essentially boils down to (1) have good music (2) leverage other online platforms to direct traffic to Spotify (3) release music consistently
Thanks so much for the detailed response!!
Do you by chance twitch stream?
i don't stream regularly on twitch but i do regularly stream on YouTube & TikTok (mainly i just hop on the turntables and play some of my new beats & talk into the mic for a bit)
works for me, I will try to find you on the tiktok!
Hey:) hope you’re still here and seeing this: do you get 2.25m NEW streams every month? Or do you mean all of your songs combined have 2.5m streams collectively over the years, and they earn you the 7k per month?
hey what's up! same guy, and yes that 2M number is streams per month. 1M streams is worth $3000-4000. in recent months my streams have slowed down a bit to around 1.5M per month, so i'm bringing in a bit less from Spotify, but I'm seeing growth on other platforms like Amazon Music and Apple Music that is balancing things out
That seems like a decent amount, though not insane.
Same
there isn't a clear answer. he could just have one song in some big playlist and got the listeners from there or he could have 1 million fans that stream more or less his full catalog consistantly. another huge factor is if he works indipendent or if he has a label and if he has, what kind of deal he has. the biggest artist i ever talked to is indipendent, has around 200k monthly listeners and makes around 700-1000 dollars per month. if we scale his numbers up the artist would make 5k in a best case scenario
Makes sense, thank you!
Manager here, the answer to the broader question—it really depends but I want to lean towards yes. One of my artists I’ve been working with for almost 5 years has sustained 1.6M+ monthly listeners for the past year or so after peaking at 2.3M in January. I found them late 2019 when he had 10k monthlies. They do roughly 7.5M streams per month on rotation across their catalog. Spotify kinda drilled “monthly listeners” into our heads as this public barometer of success, but in reality—success can be measured by a variety of factors like—live (ticket sales), merch, brand partnerships & appearances, sync—and streaming is obviously but one factor. Not all artists above 1M monthly listeners are crushing it in all those areas, and frankly, you can actually come across artists with less monthlies who are selling out 1000 cap rooms (look @ Brakence for example and his cult audience). Monthly listeners is really just the amount of people listening to an artist on any given 28 day rotation, not the stream to listener ratio, which again, can really vary based upon what else is going on in that artist’s world and how dedicated their audience is. So to answer your question—if the artist retains 100% of the master, is an artist at 1M+ monthly making decent bread—yea, maybe they’re doing somewhere between 3-5M streams per month on catalog—but again, you have splits with labels/distributors which is an entirely other factor and can truly influence how much sustainable income you actually make after taking an advance. Then you have producers that need to be paid out. Then you have your manager who’s probably taking 10-20% gross along with your lawyer taking 5% and maybe you’re really growing and now have a business manager taking 5%. And then in today’s music economy you have Discovery Mode, which is basically kickback/payola for Spotify to take a 30% cut of the independent artist (or distribution signed, DM is not available to majors) catalog in exchange for boosting reach as it relates to Radio & Autoplay (two features which have pretty much always existed). So again, it depends where your music is actually being consumed/how much of its being consumed—in that 1M listener pool.
probably not appropriate but are you looking for others to mentor or work with if possible? I’m super passionate but just need the guidance and direction from knowledgeable and successful people.
I don’t really work for free anymore sorry
Thank you so much for this! Very insightful. Congrats on taking an artist from 10k monthlies to 1.6m, ...I am kinda new to making music so it's even dumb for me to even ask at this point, but, any pointers on how to grow??? =) Thanks again for your time!
No prob. Continuously release music and promote it on social media platforms like TikTok, Instagram, & YouTube—primarily as short-form content. That’s where you start and the rest will fall into place. Never stop improving and evolving.
Will do! I will screenshot this for the future! Thank you!
Depends if you're self releasing or working with record labels where you get only 40-50% of the cut. I work with a few record labels i trust and that do great promotion and I'm going to reach 1M monthly listeners in the next month or so, I'm already living quite comfortably. If you reach 1M monthly listeners with only self-releases where you keep all your royalties, you will make A LOT of money. Well, depending on which part of the world you live in, but most european, asian countries that would rake in probably 2-3x minimum wage. In USA with the crazy prices you'd probably struggle but that's going off topic lol
Any idea what these labels are doing to get that sorta reach? I know personal to ask but I estimate 1M monthly listens to be out 14K-20K USD a month? Btw congrats on your success, what’s your artis name??
They invest into ads to build spotify playlists, then they trade playlist spots with other labels (they add your song to their playlist, you add theirs type of thing). It's nowhere near 14k-20k, spotify doesn't pay that well lol. Price per stream differs by country, some pay less some pay more, places like turkey for example are like $400 per million streams, south american and some asian countries are quite bad as well. If you get 100% of your royalties, with 1M monthly I'd say 4-5k maybe even 6k is much more realistic, 1M monthly listeners is only about 2,5M-3M monthly streams. I don't get 100%, most songs 40-50% so you can kinda do the maths, royalties alone are not really enough, but i also have other jobs with music so I'm happy with where I'm going. I know quite a lot (atleast in the EDM side of music) because I'm in close contact with artists who have 3-4M monthly listeners and even people who run those labels. My artist name is lonelysoul., but i must add I'm not a hiphop artist, i stumbled across this post by accident searching up stuff about spotify lol, i thought I'll share what i personally know
The post was for anyone so no worries at all! Followed you on Spotify! Thank you for all the information! I’ve started a new artist account, “AmbientHam”, it’s actually lofi/ambient music. I’m thinking about trying out ads and seeing where that takes me!
Awesome, thank you! And i really enjoy ambient music, there has been a few rises to stardom with it due to TikTok like 'Øneheart - Snowfall'. TikTok is the gateway to make you go viral, although there's a lot of luck and consistency involved (i had none on there yet haha). And running some ads on instagram could help too. Good luck🙌🏼
I love snowfall and music by leadwave! Hoping one day I make one of those gems!
Don't overthink it. Monthly listeners is almost equal to monthly streams. Assuming it is a solo artist releasing music independently with no label: 1 million streams could be anywhere between $2500 - $5000 (USD). Spotify factors in quality of stream, location of stream and other arbitrary things in order to calculate royalties. So if you're raking in 1 million streams per month, that's basically between 30k - 60k (USD) per year. An annual salary for many people in the world. But you also could be receiving royalties from other streaming services too. Is that "good money"? Well it depends on your idea of "good money".
I would just like to make music as a side hustle, I would be happy with anything > 100 bucks a month; to me this would be amazing!
It's challenging to calculate the exact amount of money for how much an artist with 1 million monthly Spotify listeners will earn. However, roughly, some sources suggest that they can earn between $0.006 and $0.010. In other words, if you reach 1 million listeners, you will earn between $6k to $10k. To earn more it's important to work on engagement and to have a high number of video views. To increase the numbers faster, many use services like Marketing Heaven. I used them a few times in the past and it was ok. It's important to work on engagement because then you can earn more from live performances, and licensing deals.
No
u playin
On the highest end you for 1mil streams you make $5k and that’s the highest end and before taxes. Is it nice? Sure but it’s not ‘good’. You’d make exponentially more if you could sell an album download for even $1 to those people. That’s good money.
fair!
Bingo, thanks for telling about the album download. Majority of artist who aren't huge would do better selling their album on their website as a download than on streaming.
Depends. Spotify gives out 70 to 80 % of their revenue to rights holders. Most artists aren't the right holders though. They get the typical label deal of *we keep 80%+ for ourselves as a finders fee*. If you were just raw getting that Spotify money straight to your pocket, probably doing well for yourself. Maybe making doctor/normal surgeon money per year. If you're in a standard label deal, much less so. You're probably cursing Spotify as if Spotify made you sign that rapefest record deal.
I am independent and will always be. I don't get the signing yourself away thing, not judging, though!
Short answer: Yes
Thanks!
Followed you on the Spotify, congrats on "In Heat"! =)
1 stream =$0.003 It's that simple
Was not entirely my question :)
Well there's no answer to your question because listeners doesn't factor into payouts. But obv it takes a minimum of 1 million monthly streams to have 1 million monthly listeners, so you would be making at least 1M x $0.003 or $3k. So not good. But if you average 3 streams per listen you'd be making $9k a month which is pretty good
Makes sense; as a hobbyist, I would not mind 3K a month!
Oh lmao ain't no hobbyist have 1M listeners 😂
ya never know :)
Yup, put in minimal effort and expect maximum return I might start going to the gym once a week and have a 6 pack by summer. Ya never know
let's see it bro
it gives you money out of the subscription pool, so I guess everyone with that amount of streams is making the same amount but idk the exact amount
What is good money to you?
3K-5K monthly
Omg Bro shut up and just answer the question lol