Streaming royalty calculator: See what your streams are worth.
Enter your monthly streams to see the streaming royalties you'd earn on every major platform.
Estimated average earnings per month
$64.67
$776.00 per year
$130.00/ month
~$0.0130 / stream$1,560.00 / year
$80.00/ month
~$0.0080 / stream$960.00 / year
$64.00/ month
~$0.0064 / stream$768.00 / year
$44.00/ month
~$0.0044 / stream$528.00 / year
$40.00/ month
~$0.0040 / stream$480.00 / year
$30.00/ month
~$0.0030 / stream$360.00 / year
Blended average rates based on the Duetti Music Economics Report and 2026 industry payout studies. No platform publishes fixed per-stream prices — actual payouts vary by listener country, subscription tier, and monthly revenue pools. Updated July 2026.
How accurate is this streaming royalty calculator?
This calculator uses approximate per-stream rates based on publicly available data. Actual payouts depend on the listener's country, subscription type (free vs. premium), currency, and each platform's revenue pool that month. Use these figures as a rough guide, not a guarantee.
Why do different streaming platforms pay different rates?
Each platform has a different business model, subscriber base, ad revenue mix, and payout methodology. Premium-focused services like Tidal and Apple Music tend to pay higher per-stream rates, while ad-supported tiers pay less.
How can I increase my streaming revenue?
Focus on getting saves and repeat listens (not just one-time plays), pitch to editorial playlists, build an email list for release announcements, and distribute to all available platforms to maximize your audience reach.
Does LUCY take a percentage of my royalties?
On Pro and Label, no: LUCY takes 0% commission and you keep 100% of what the platforms pay. On the Free plan you keep 70%.
How long does it take to receive streaming royalties?
Platforms report plays to distributors on a delay of 1-3 months. Your distributor then processes the data and pays on their schedule. Budget for a consistent 2-3 month lag between streams and payment.
Free streaming royalty calculator for independent artists. Estimate earnings from Spotify, Apple Music, YouTube Music, Tidal, and more.
Estimate Your Streaming Earnings
The LUCY Streaming Royalty Calculator is a free tool that helps independent artists estimate their potential earnings across major streaming platforms. Enter your stream count and see estimated payouts for Spotify, Apple Music, YouTube Music, Tidal, Amazon Music, Deezer, and other popular services. The calculator uses current average per-stream rates updated regularly with the latest industry payout data.
Understanding your potential earnings is an important part of release planning. Use the calculator to compare how the same number of streams translates to different payouts across platforms, helping you make informed decisions about where to focus your marketing and playlist pitching efforts.
Per-Stream Rates by Platform
Streaming royalties vary significantly between platforms. Spotify currently pays between three and five thousandths of a dollar per stream on average, while Apple Music pays closer to seven to ten thousandths of a dollar. Tidal generally offers higher per-stream rates than most competitors, while YouTube Music pays among the lowest per-stream rates but reaches the largest global audience.
These rates are averages and can fluctuate based on the listener's country, their subscription type (free vs premium), total platform revenue that month, and other factors. The LUCY calculator provides estimated ranges rather than exact figures to give you a realistic picture of potential earnings.
How Streaming Royalties Work
When a listener streams your song on a platform like Spotify or Apple Music, the platform pools all subscription and advertising revenue for that period. That pool is divided among all rights holders based on their share of total streams. Your per-stream payout depends on the platform, the listener's location and subscription tier, and total platform activity during that period.
As an independent artist distributing through LUCY, you receive one hundred percent of the artist share of those royalties. On Pro and Label there is no commission or revenue split with LUCY. Your royalties appear in your LUCY dashboard in real time, and you can withdraw them to your bank account or PayPal at any time.
Maximize Your Earnings
To maximize your streaming revenue, focus on growing your audience across multiple platforms rather than relying on a single service. Distribute to all available platforms through LUCY to capture listeners wherever they prefer to stream. Build a consistent release schedule, pitch to editorial playlists, and promote your music through social media to increase your total stream count across all services.
Frequently Asked Questions
How are streaming royalties split?
A stream generates two separate royalties, and they are paid to different people. The recording royalty goes to whoever owns the master — for an independent artist distributing through LUCY, that is you. The publishing royalty goes to whoever wrote the song, collected through a PRO and a publishing administrator. If you wrote and recorded your own track you are owed both, but they arrive through different channels and you have to be registered for each. Where a song has co-writers, the publishing side is split between them by the percentages on the split sheet.
How much does Spotify pay per stream?
There is no fixed rate. Spotify pools subscription and advertising revenue each month and divides it among rights holders by share of total streams, so the per-stream figure moves with the listener’s country, whether they are on a free or paid plan, and how much the platform earned that month. Commonly cited averages fall around $0.003 to $0.005 per stream, but treat that as a range for planning rather than a rate you are owed. The calculator on this page uses ranges for exactly that reason.
Why is my actual payout different from the estimate?
Estimates use average per-stream rates; your real payout depends on where your listeners are, what they pay, and the platform’s revenue that period. A track streamed mostly in high-subscription-price markets earns more per play than the same track streamed mostly on free tiers. Timing also differs: stores report to distributors on a delay, so a stream today typically appears in your account one to three months later.
Does LUCY take a percentage of my streaming royalties?
No. LUCY takes no commission on streaming royalties on any plan, including the free one. You keep 100% of the artist share the stores pay out. Note that "100% of royalties" is close to standard among modern distributors and is not what separates them — the differences that matter are whether there is a free tier, how billing works, and whether percentages are taken on social and user-generated-content earnings.
What is a good number of streams to aim for?
Rather than a stream target, work backwards from a figure you need. At roughly $0.003 to $0.005 per stream, a million streams lands somewhere in the low thousands of dollars for the recording side alone. That is worth knowing early, because it reframes streaming as one income line among several — publishing, sync, live and merch typically matter more to an independent artist’s total than raw stream count does.
Are publishing royalties included in this calculator?
No. This calculator estimates the recording (master) side only. Publishing royalties — mechanical and performance — are generated by the same streams but collected separately through your PRO and a publishing administrator, and they are frequently left unclaimed by independent artists. If you wrote the song, that is money owed to you on top of anything estimated here.
