What an artist earns

I eluded to a little experiment I was running with some of the listening services. Specifically, Pandora, Amazon Unlimited and Tidal. However, I have been tracking all services and wanted to let everyone know how the payments go out.

For Pandora, Amazon Unlimited and Tidal, I specifically signed up for the service, then I would listen to my own music (the whole collection) a few times a month. This was to verify that all listens were being captured (I did it also a bit on Youtube Red and Spotify but not to the same level). By listening to all, I could verify that those listens were accruing payment (there might be a song or so that had an extra listen or two, but all should be at that level.

I can say that both Pandora and Amazon Unlimited performed very well. They tracked all my plays. Tidal on the other hand was a huge disappointment. None of my listens were captured (there were some random ones for others listening. I contacted Tidal to try and work it out (I figured there might be something wrong with my listening account and nobody was getting money I listened to). However, there is no way to work this with them. If they say you had X listens, that is it, even if you know you had more (because you did the listening). There is no way to dispute or work it out. I have cancelled the service, I understand they can not respond to everyone who thinks they deserve more, but there does need to be some path to work out problems.

As far as payments per listen go (drum role) this is what I earn per listen:

Amazon Unlimited – $0.0136

Youtube Red - $0.0111

Pandora – $0.0048

Applemusic - $0.0047

YouTube (video) - $0.0045

TikTok - $0.0036 (I think this is per creation, not listen, not sure)

Spotify - $0.0023

Netease - $0.0006

That is all the services that have reported listens for my music. Netease seems to be new, and I am getting a handful of listens on that (it is Chinese I believe). It does not pay well, but it is something. As you can see, the two two (Amazon Unlimited and Youtube Red) both pay just over a penny a listen. Then it drops quickly to just under half a penny a listen (and there seems to be a grouping there). Finally Spotify and Netease bring up the rear.

So it is not a lot. You need thousands and thousands of listens just to get into the tens of dollars region. Streaming music is not really a career, but we are doing it for fun (and telling our story). However, if you have a chance give us a listen (you can see from above where your listens support the artist the most).