How Much Does Apple Music Pay Per Stream In 2023

How much does Apple Music pay per stream? 

Well, according to Apple themselves: 

This means that what you get paid per stream will vary, but as you get more streams, what you earn should all even out to be about $0.01 per stream. 

That said, in my own personal experience, I'm only getting paid about $0.006 per stream on Apple Music. 

Roughly the same can be said for this artist as well. 

Not only that, but VisualCapitalist.com credits Apple Music with an average payout per stream as being $0.00735...

Well below the $0.01 claimed by Apple. 

So it seems the average pay rate of $0.01 per stream seems to be a bit of an optimistic boast by Apple. 

how much does apple music pay per 1000 streams?

Apple Music pays artists about $6 to $10 per 1,000 streams. 

As stated above, this number will fluctuate for you based on total number of streams, and who is listening to your music. 

If your music is being listened to by people in wealthier countries, and more of those listeners are using a paid plan, then you will make more money per stream. 

How Much does apple music pay per million streams?

Apple Music pays artists about $7,000 to $10,000 per million streams. 

I don't know about you, but that's a decent chunk of change. 

If you could manage to haul in a million streams per month on Apple music, you could easily be making $84,000 to $120,000 a year just from Apple Music alone. 

If you could manage to grow your music catalog to 100 songs, then you only need roughly 10,000 streams a month per song, or 333 streams per song a day to hit one million streams a month. 

But how realistic is this? 

In my experience, it's much more difficult to influence the growth of your streams on Apple Music versus a platform like Spotify. 

On Spotify, it's very easy to reach out to playlists and get your music added so you can start growing your streams. 

This isn't as much the case on Apple Music. 

Plus, with far fewer users than Spotify, getting this amount of volume is a challenge as well. 

You've probably figured out that streaming isn't the best way to monetize as an artist. 

Sure, it can be a key cog in your income machine, but banking everything on streaming royalties is going to be a long shot. 

Check out this article by my friend Nick over at HomeMusicStudios.com on 6 different ways to earn money online as a music producer. 

does apple music or spotify pay artists more?

Even noting the wide fluctuation in pay-per-stream estimates for Apple Music, what is clear is that Apple Music pays artists more than Spotify.

Now you might be thinking...

"Wow, I should focus my attention all on Apple Music then, right?"

Maybe...but not necessarily. 

I share with you my top streaming platform recommendation later on in this article, but first, since we're talking about who pays more...

Which streaming platform actually pays artists the most?

which music streaming platform pays the most?

Okay, if Tidal pays the most, then ditch Apple Music and Spotify, right? 

Again, not necessarily. 

In addition to Tidal's reliability coming into question...

Just because a streaming platform pays the most doesn't mean it's the best one to push to when it comes to promoting your music. 

Your ability to be discovered and the number of users on a particular platform are also important to consider. 

Is apple music better than spotify For Artists?

Even though Apple Music pays better per stream, Spotify is still the superior platform for artists to grow. 

Your increased ability to gain streams on Spotify outweighs the small increase per-stream you gain with Apple Music. 

Not only that, but it's easier to get discovered on Spotify, and Spotify has the size advantage when it comes to user-base.  

Some other articles that will help you grow your artist income: 

which Streaming Platform Is The Best One For Artists To Focus On?

Spotify is superior to all other streaming platforms for artists because of its larger user-base, discoverability tools, and the power it gives the artist to promote their own music.

I'll cover each of these in turn:

• User base size
• Discoverability
• Ability to control outcomes

Size of User-Base

Spotify is easily the largest streaming platform on the market, and it's this fact alone that should make artists consider using it as their primary base of operations. 

When you tell your fans to stream your music, you either have to be vague and spread streams over various platforms, diluting your impact...

Or you can encourage your fans to stream your music on Spotify. This will help you to trigger the algorithm so you go further, faster.

Since most people streaming music are already on Spotify, this isn't as big of an ask as telling someone to stream your music on Apple Music, Tidal, or others. 

Additionally, because of Spotify's size, there is a good chance your superfans reside on the platform. 

Discoverability

When it comes to discoverability, Spotify is also superior, as it gives artists a range of tools, and an algorithm that rewards results. 

If your music gets listens, saves, playlist adds, and more, the algorithm will start to promote your music for you. 

Here is my article breaking down further how the Spotify algorithm works.

Spotify has various algorithmic playlists that will automatically promote your music for you to new listeners, and not just any new listeners...

But listeners who listen to music similar to yours, so you have a higher chance of actually generating fans. 

These algorithmic playlists include:

• Spotify Radio
• Discover Weekly 
• Release Radar
• Your Daily Mix
• On Repeat and Repeat Rewind

If you want to learn more about how you can get your music onto Spotify algorithmic playlists, then check out my article here.

In addition to algorithmic playlists, Spotify also has editorial playlists which can explode your streams and fans overnight. 

Editorial playlists are playlists on Spotify that are curated by real humans who work at Spotify. 

You can actually submit your music to these editors for their consideration. 

If you want to learn how you can actually get Spotify to add your music to one of their editorial playlists, then read my article here.

Spotify's powerful discoverability features make it the best streaming platform for artists to focus on.

Ability To Control Outcomes

Finally, you actually have a decent amount of control over promoting your music on Spotify, unlike other platforms. 

Most other streaming platforms, there really isn't anything you can do to promote your music other than paying them to run ads. 

However, there are ton of free things you can do to promote your Spotify. 

In fact, here is my article on 22 different tips for growing your Spotify streams for free.

Some of these tips can overlap for other platforms, but they're most effective on Spotify, and many of the tips can only be done with Spotify.

One of THE BEST ways to grow your streams is to actually get your music on user-generated playlists on Spotify.

Doing so can help you to trigger the algorithm and land your music on various algorithmic and editorial playlists. 

If you want to learn how to do this so you can explode your streams and hack the Spotify algorithm, then grab my free Spotify playlist placement guide here.

I hope you got value from my post on how much Apple Music pays per stream. 

If so, feel free to share, and ask any questions you have in the comments below.

Otherwise, check out some of my favorite tools for helping you grow a music career online.