10 million streams on Spotify generally earns artists and rights holders around $30,000 to $50,000, based on typical rates of $0.003 to $0.005 per stream, but this varies greatly by listener location, subscription type (free vs. Premium), and deal with distributors/labels, with some estimates placing earnings for 10 million streams even higher for premium listeners or specific markets.
Spotify generally pays artists between $0.003 and $0.005 per stream. (Yep, that means roughly $3,000–$5,000 for every million streams.) As for how much Spotify pays per stream, they pay roughly $0.04 per 10 streams.
For 1 million streams, Spotify generally pays artists and rights holders between $3,000 and $5,000, based on an average rate of $0.003 to $0.005 per stream, though actual earnings vary significantly due to listener location, subscription type (free vs. premium), distributor deals, and label agreements. This amount is then split among all rights holders, including songwriters, publishers, and labels, so the artist's take-home pay is much less.
To estimate your streaming royalties, use a simple formula: Royalties = Number of Streams × Average Payout Rate. For example, if you have 500,000 streams on Spotify and the average payout is $0.004 per stream, your estimated royalties would be: 500,000 × $0.004 = $2,000.
On Spotify, a billion streams in the US could yield around $4 million, but this fluctuates globally.
1. Taylor Swift
American rapper Kendrick Lamar was the first rapper to both achieve the feat and surpass the 110 million mark. Australian singer-songwriter Sia is the most recent artist to surpass 100 million monthly listeners. British band Coldplay are the first group to reach every milestone from 60 million to 100 million.
Working from the above estimate, you'd need between 200,000 and 334,000 streams to make $1000. To make $10,000, you'd need 2 million to 3.34 million and to make $50,000, approximately 10 million to 16.6 million.
Simply multiply the average per-play rate of $0.01 by the total number of streams in a specific month. For example, if your album garners 100K streams, you'll earn $1000. And if it gets 1 million streams, your royalties are $10,000. You can also use an Apple Music royalties calculator to estimate your earnings.
You would need over 20k plays per month to make $100, and no playlist that could give you that much is going to put an instrumental on the playlist. They want real songs.
Selling Physical Records = Direct Revenue + Fan Engagement. Streaming platforms provide exposure, but physical sales create real engagement and deeper connections with your audience. Having your music in vinyl, CD, or cassette form gives fans something tangible and collectible, enhancing the value of your music.
For Spotify, the average payout per stream generally falls between $0.003 and $0.005. With these rates, if your music garners 300K streams, you'd typically earn between $900 and $1500. This figure can be influenced by varying factors such as listener location and their account type.
Under Spotify's current model, an artist whose music garners 10,000-50,000 monthly streams earns $100-600 per month from Spotify, according to estimates by Sound Campaign.
With 10 million views on YouTube you can make from $10,000 to $250,000! However, if you are looking to make money on YouTube you need to understand that the views itself really matter. The views that will make you earn money are the ad views.
Calculating how many streams an artist needs to earn $1,000 on Spotify depends on the per-stream rate, which typically ranges from $0.003 to $0.005. On average, an artist would need between 200,000 and 333,000 streams to reach this milestone.
The answer is that when people are in the top 0.005% of all the listeners globally, they have listened to that song or artist more than 99.995% of all other Spotify users. Additionally, many users also ranked under the top 0.001% of all the listeners globally when they shared their top artists and songs.
A billion streams on Spotify typically generates around three to $5 million dollars in gross revenue but how much actually reaches the artist depends on several factors.
A good number of Spotify monthly listeners varies by genre, but typically, 1,000 to 10,000 indicates solid listener engagement. Popular artists often exceed 50,000, reflecting significant streaming trends and highlighting their broader appeal across audiences.
Taylor Swift was the top global artist of 2024 on Spotify, as revealed in the streamer's yearly Wrapped rundown of the most popular recordings. She achieved more than 26.6 billion streams around the world, putting her ahead of The Weeknd at No. 2, Bad Bunny at No. 3, Drake at No.
Bad Bunny is once again Spotify's Global Top Artist
Rounding out the top five artists are Taylor Swift in second place (but first in the U.S.), followed by The Weeknd (third), Drake (fourth), and Billie Eilish (fifth).
In case you didn't already know it, facts and figures put together by Forbes show that Daniel Ek, Spotify's CEO and founder is currently worth $7.3 billion. That's richer than their musical top three of Taylor Swift, Rihanna and Jay-Z combined. Richer, therefore, than any music artist in history.
The megastar is only the fifth musician to make the Forbes billionaires list, where she reigns with her husband Jay-Z, Taylor Swift, Rihanna and Bruce Springsteen. Forbes reported Beyoncé's Cowboy Carter tour was the highest-grossing of 2025, raking in $400 million in ticket sales, and another $50 million in merch.