Streaming Royalty Calculator UK: What Spotify, Apple Music and YouTube Music Pay
Most royalty calculators give you the answer in dollars. This one is in pounds. Put in your streams, multiply by the rate, and you have your number. The rates and the sum are below.
One thing first. No streaming service publishes an official per stream rate, so every figure here is an estimate. We say which ones are measured and which are commonly quoted.
How much does each platform pay per stream?
| Platform | Estimated pay per stream | Where the figure comes from |
|---|---|---|
| Spotify | £0.003 | Measured on a real distributor account, see our breakdown |
| Apple Music | £0.008 | Commonly quoted estimate. Apple's own letter says about one cent on average |
| YouTube Music | £0.0015 | Commonly quoted estimate |
These are what reaches you before your distributor takes its fee. If you are signed, your contract decides what is left.
What do your streams earn?
| Streams | Spotify | Apple Music | YouTube Music |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1,000 | £3 | £8 | £1.50 |
| 10,000 | £30 | £80 | £15 |
| 100,000 | £300 | £800 | £150 |
Read it across. A track with 10,000 plays on Spotify earns about £30. That is a good month for a small artist and it will not cover a studio day.
The sum to do yourself
Streams on a platform, times the rate for that platform. Add the platforms together. Take off your distributor's cut. That is your estimate.
Three things move the answer:
- Where the listener lives. A stream from a UK paid listener earns more than a stream from a free tier listener somewhere else. - Free or paid. Ad supported plays earn less than subscriber plays. - The month. Platforms share a pot of money. The pot is shared out by all streams, so your rate shifts every month.
On Spotify there is another catch. A track with fewer than 1,000 streams in the last twelve months earns nothing at all. We explain it in the 1,000 stream rule.
Why a per stream rate is the wrong way to value a fan
On every pooled platform, a fan is worth the number of times they press play. A fan who loves you but plays you twice a month is worth fractions of a penny.
RAAYDR pays another way. Each fan's subscription is shared between the artists that fan actually played. At full attention, one fan on the standard plan is worth up to £3.56 a month to the artist they play. To earn the same from Spotify you would need around 1,187 plays.
55% of a £9.99 subscription after VAT, publishing royalties and card fees. Actual earnings depend on your share of each fan's listening.
For a worked example, 500 fans giving you a 40% share of their listening comes to roughly £712 a month. You can change those numbers on the streaming royalty calculator.
What about publishing money?
Streams also earn the songwriter a separate payment, collected through a society such as PRS. That is not in the table above. We cover who collects what in PRS vs PPL.
Try it with your own numbers
Run your numbers on the RAAYDR calculator or join the waitlist and we will tell you when listeners can join.
FAQ
- How much does Spotify pay per stream in the UK?
- There is no official rate. A commonly measured figure is about £0.003 a stream, before your distributor takes its fee.
- How do I calculate my streaming royalties?
- Multiply your streams on each platform by that platform's rate, add them up, then take off your distributor's fee. The result is an estimate, not a promise.
- Is Apple Music better than Spotify for artists?
- Per stream, Apple Music is usually estimated to pay more. It has a smaller audience, so total earnings depend on where your listeners are.
- Why do calculators give different answers?
- Platforms do not publish rates, so each calculator uses its own estimate. They also differ on currency, listener country and plan type.
- Does this include songwriting royalties?
- No. Publishing royalties are collected separately through a society such as PRS.
Per stream rates are estimates. Spotify's is measured on one independent artist's distributor data and the others are commonly quoted figures, as of October 2026. No platform publishes an official rate and they change. RAAYDR hasn't launched to listeners yet, so figures for RAAYDR describe the published model, not observed payouts, and attention share is an assumption.
