What is Music Streaming?
Music streaming is another way of saying "internet based song playing." A stream is essentially a song play on the internet. One stream is one play. The music industry is quickly heading toward an entirely online based song streaming industry. With physical record sales (and even digital downloads) dropping, streaming may be the best chance of raising any revenue for future projects.
The problem came with file sharing and piracy. In the old days, you had to buy the record or CD to hear to the music. If you let a friend borrow the record or CD, ...they could hear it, but you couldn't until they gave it back. With the internet and file sharing, people just dupicate the song file (.wav, .mp3, etc.), and can send it to essentially everybody on the internet, ...for free. This alone has absolutely destroyed the music industry. Money has fallen out of the worldwide music industry like crazy. What is the solution? It's Music Streaming.
Music streaming aims to please everybody. The fans and loyal music listeners get to hear music for free (with an occasional ad), or pay a small annual or monthly fee to remove the ads and get special privileges. This money is raised and sent right back to the creators of the songs, in fractions of pennies, but it adds up (the estimated payout amounts for each streaming service are listed below). With fans already accustomed to hearing free music, and artists needing money to fund their music, this new online plan is a win-win.
How Fast is Music Streaming Growing?
Accroding to IFPI Global Music Report, music streaming is at a 60.4% increase in 2017. That's pretty big! 112 million more users have paid streaming subscriptions driving most this growth. That's not everybody though. The fans still using the free streaming platforms are getting hit with those pesky ads, which pay to display. With subscriptions and adverstisers, the revenue collection is growing fast.Streaming revenue now accounts for over 50% of total industry revenue. According to IFPI, download revenue is down -20.5%. Simply put, people aren't buying songs anymore. They want to stream them with an internet and data connection. This music streaming trend is on the rise, and it looks to continue with momentum into the future.
How Does Music Streaming Pay Artists?
As mentioned briefly before, music streaming pays artists based on a per-stream amount, often being fractions of pennies. This amount varies from streaming platform to platform. Pandora and Microsoft Groove are at the higher ends, while YouTube and Spotify are at the lower ends (see the various platforms and their payout estimations below).
What are the Payout Estimates for Streaming Services?
According to Careers in Music, the following numbers are the estimates of payout per stream on each major platform.
Apple Music – $0.0013 – $0.0178
Deezer – $0.001 – $0.005
Google Play – $0.007 – $0.0073
Guvera – $0.02
Microsoft Groove – $0.0456
Pandora – $0.017 for advertising streams and $0.022 for subscription streams
Napster – $0.0019 – $0.008
Spotify – $0.0011 – $0.0084
Tidal – $0.007
YouTube – $0.0003 – $0.037
Note: these values are estimates.
Although this doesn't look like a lot of money, it can add up. Once a song is mastered and distributed, it will start to make money. A song streamed a million times will generate roughly $1,100 - $8,400. A song streamed 100 million times (which does happen) will generate $110,000 - $840,000. These royalties combined with TV/Film placements, video game placements, commercial placements, merchandise sales, and digital downloads will drive your income as an artist.
So...I'm a new artist. How do I get my music on these streaming platforms?
New artists in the streaming game have a couple options to choose from. You can send your songs to each streaming platform on your own, but this isn't recommended because its so time consuming. The better way is to use a distribution service. Like the streaming platforms, there are a variety of distribution services. I personally use Distrokid. It's the cheapest and quickest service I've found. It costs a small annual fee, usually less than $10 per year. You can pay a little extra to get cool features like Shazam and YouTube content ID.
So, ...you've spent a week or two working on your new song. It's time to master it and get it out into the market place. With a distribution service like Distrokid, and the streaming platforms listed above, you'll have no trouble getting your music in front of your fans and begin making money.