Apple Music pay
How much does Apple Music pay per stream? Under a cent: about $6.20 per 1,000 streams to whoever owns the recording, against $3.00 on Spotify. Test your own mix in the Spotify royalty calculator, which covers Apple Music too.
Apple Music has no free, ad-supported tier, so its plays come from paying subscribers. That’s part of the gap: Spotify’s average includes plays from free listeners, which are worth less. The figures here are the 2024 averages independent artists and other master owners were paid, from catalogue investor Duetti’s report.
Higher per stream doesn’t mean more money overall. Most of your listeners will probably be on Spotify, so it usually sends the bigger cheque. Compare how much Spotify pays per stream, or browse our music royalties and pay guides for the other services.
Cellist Zoe Keating published her streaming income in 2018. Through her label, 628,000 Apple Music plays paid $6,214, close to a cent each. Her Spotify plays, through a distributor, paid less than half that per stream. One artist’s numbers, not a rule, but they match the gap in the rates.
About $6,200 to whoever owns the recording, before a distributor or label takes its share. The same million is worth very different amounts depending on where it happens, on 2024 averages from Duetti:
| A million streams on | Recording money |
|---|---|
| Apple Music | $6,200 |
| Spotify | $3,000 |
| YouTube | $4,800 |
| Amazon Music | $8,800 |
A real million mixes these rates, since your plays won’t all come from one place. Amazon pays more per stream than Apple, but only for the streams you get there.
That rate goes to the recording owner. If you release through a flat-fee distributor, you keep close to all of it; a commission plan takes its cut first. On a label deal, the CMA found the average major-label royalty was 23.3% in 2021, so 1,000 Apple streams would credit you about $1.44, and a million about $1,445, paid only once your advance is cleared.
Songwriters earn on top: roughly $1.75 per 1,000 Apple streams and $1,755 per million, split between every co-writer and their publishers, and paid through collecting societies.
That split is why writers’ cheques can look tiny. Songwriter Fiona Bevan told MPs in December 2020 that a song she co-wrote on Kylie Minogue’s No.1 album Disco had earned her about £100 from streaming. Register your songs and agree splits early so your share finds you. There’s more on how songwriters get paid.
Through a distributor, the same as for Spotify. See how to upload music to Spotify, which covers Apple Music too.
We haven’t found independent reporting of one. Spotify’s 1,000-stream rule is Spotify’s policy.
It’s a big number for an independent artist. Use the calculator to see what smaller totals pay.