Beautiful Virgin Islands

Saturday, Jul 26, 2025

Apple Music

Apple Reveals It Pays Musicians $0.01 per Stream, Twice as Much as Spotify

Among music streaming services, Apple already has a well-deserved reputation for being a friend to the music publishing industry, thanks to its generous payouts to artists and willing acceptance of royalty increases. Now, however, the company is taking even more steps to increase transparency and make sure artists realize just how good of a deal they’re getting from Apple Music.

In a letter sent out to artists last week, Apple disclosed that it actually pays out a penny per stream, and while that may not sound like much on the surface, it’s about double what Spotify pays out.

According to The Wall Street Journal, the letter was posted to the service’s artist dashboard and sent directly to labels and publishers, following a similar move by Spotify last month.

Of course, this is one area in which Apple doesn’t have to worry about losing ground to its chief streaming rival. While Spotify may have twice as many subscribers as Apple Music, it’s made a few big missteps in recent years when it comes to fairly compensating artists — moves that have made Apple look better simply by contrast.

Chief among these was an unprecedented challenge that Spotify and other major music streaming services like Google and Amazon made to a decision by the U.S. Copyright Board to increase the rate of royalties. While they filed an appeal opposing the increase, Apple simply refused to get involved, accepting the ruling without comment.

While the situation was arguably somewhat more complicated than just the increased royalties, the bottom line is that Spotify et al came across as greedy big tech companies who wanted to take money out of the mouths of artists. Music industry executives called the move akin to “bullying” and “declaring war” on the songwriting community.

Meanwhile, those same executives lauded Apple as a “friend to songwriters.” National Music Publishers’ Association CEO David Israelite added that “every songwriter and every fan of music should stand up and take notice” of the quiet courtroom appeals that Spotify and Amazon have been engaging in to deny songwriters and musicians their due.

Then, in the middle of what was already certainly bad PR for the streaming service, Spotify used the very regulations that it was opposing to demand money back from artists as a result of alleged overpayments. It was a move that the music publishing industry called blatantly hypocritical, particularly since if Spotify won its appeal it would end up having to give that same money right back to the artists.

So, it’s probably not a big surprise that Spotify is trying to spin its opaque variable lower royalty payouts to artists as actually better than Apple’s. In fact, Spotify launched a dedicated site last month in which it tries to make sense of the 800 different payout rates that it uses, based on subscribers on different plans and in different countries.

To be fair, Spotify does pay a larger amount of money to the music industry overall, but that’s simply because it has a far larger number of users — 345 million in total, with 155 million as paying Spotify Premium customers. While Apple hasn’t revealed any subscribers numbers since it crossed 60 million two years ago, most analysts peg that number somewhere around 72 million.

While Apple insists on an easy-to-understand “per stream” rate, Spotify simply says it doesn’t believe that’s “a meaningful number to analyze,” despite the fact that this is how artists prefer to calculate their earnings from streaming services. In fact, Spotify spends so much time trying to explain why per-stream rates are the wrong metric to use that it quickly starts to sound like they’re protesting a bit too much.

The Numbers
Unlike Spotify’s very public website, Apple’s open letter was sent exclusively to artists, however 9to5Mac has gotten its hands on it and shared the text. Overall, it shows that Apple is trying to focus on a fair and simply process that pays the same rate regardless of country or subscriber level, and while it’s not a flat rate, it does average $0.01 per stream. By contrast, Spotify’s system, when expressed as a per-stream rate, caps out at around $0.005 per stream.

We believe in the value of music and paying creators fairly for their work. Since we launched the iTunes Store in 2003, we have helped millions of artists and songwriters make a living from music. As the discussion about streaming royalties continues, we believe it is important to share our values. We believe in paying every creator the same rate, that a play has a value, and that creators should never have to pay for featuring.

Apple also notes that it doesn’t pay a lower rate in exchange for featuring artists or albums on Apple Music. Even though it offers over 30,000 “hand-curated editorial playlists,” these are built entirely on merit and artists are not ever asked to accept a lower royalty rate in exchange for being included in any of these.

At Apple Music, our focus remains on artists and songwriters and finding new and innovative ways for all creators to make a living from music.

According to the letter, Apple Music paid out royalties for more than five million recording artists around the world last year, which was an increase of one million over 2019. Since 2017, the number of recording artists whose catalogs have collectively generated royalties of over $1 million per year has increased over 120%, and there are more than twice as many artists making at least $50,000 per year.

Newsletter

Related Articles

Beautiful Virgin Islands
0:00
0:00
Close
Deputy attorney general's second day of meeting with Ghislaine Maxwell has concluded
Controversial March in Switzerland Features Men Dressed in Nazi Uniforms
Politics is a good business: Barack Obama’s Reported Net Worth Growth, 1990–2025
Thai Civilian Death Toll Rises to 12 in Cambodian Cross-Border Attacks
TSUNAMI: Trump Just Crossed the Rubicon—And There’s No Turning Back
Over 120 Criminal Cases Dismissed in Boston Amid Public Defender Shortage
UN's Top Court Declares Environmental Protection a Legal Obligation Under International Law
"Crazy Thing": OpenAI's Sam Altman Warns Of AI Voice Fraud Crisis In Banking
The Podcaster Who Accidentally Revealed He Earns Over $10 Million a Year
Trump Announces $550 Billion Japanese Investment and New Trade Agreements with Indonesia and the Philippines
US Treasury Secretary Calls for Institutional Review of Federal Reserve Amid AI‑Driven Growth Expectations
UK Government Considers Dropping Demand for Apple Encryption Backdoor
Severe Flooding in South Korea Claims Lives Amid Ongoing Rescue Operations
Japanese Man Discovers Family Connection Through DNA Testing After Decades of Separation
Russia Signals Openness to Ukraine Peace Talks Amid Escalating Drone Warfare
Switzerland Implements Ban on Mammography Screening
Japanese Prime Minister Vows to Stay After Coalition Loses Upper House Majority
Pogacar Extends Dominance with Stage Fifteen Triumph at Tour de France
CEO Resigns Amid Controversy Over Relationship with HR Executive
Man Dies After Being Pulled Into MRI Machine Due to Metal Chain in New York Clinic
NVIDIA Achieves $4 Trillion Valuation Amid AI Demand
US Revokes Visas of Brazilian Corrupted Judges Amid Fake Bolsonaro Investigation
U.S. Congress Approves Rescissions Act Cutting Federal Funding for NPR and PBS
North Korea Restricts Foreign Tourist Access to New Seaside Resort
Brazil's Supreme Court Imposes Radical Restrictions on Former President Bolsonaro
Centrist Criticism of von der Leyen Resurfaces as she Survives EU Confidence Vote
Judge Criticizes DOJ Over Secrecy in Dropping Charges Against Gang Leader
Apple Closes $16.5 Billion Tax Dispute With Ireland
Von der Leyen Faces Setback Over €2 Trillion EU Budget Proposal
UK and Germany Collaborate on Global Military Equipment Sales
Trump Plans Over 10% Tariffs on African and Caribbean Nations
Flying Taxi CEO Reclaims Billionaire Status After Stock Surge
Epstein Files Deepen Republican Party Divide
Zuckerberg Faces $8 Billion Privacy Lawsuit From Meta Shareholders
FIFA Pressured to Rethink World Cup Calendar Due to Climate Change
SpaceX Nears $400 Billion Valuation With New Share Sale
Microsoft, US Lab to Use AI for Faster Nuclear Plant Licensing
Trump Walks Back Talk of Firing Fed Chair Jerome Powell
Zelensky Reshuffles Cabinet to Win Support at Home and in Washington
"Can You Hit Moscow?" Trump Asked Zelensky To Make Putin "Feel The Pain"
Irish Tech Worker Detained 100 days by US Authorities for Overstaying Visa
Dimon Warns on Fed Independence as Trump Administration Eyes Powell’s Succession
Church of England Removes 1991 Sexuality Guidelines from Clergy Selection
Superman Franchise Achieves Success with Latest Release
Hungary's Viktor Orban Rejects Agreements on Illegal Migration
Jeff Bezos Considers Purchasing Condé Nast as a Wedding Gift
Ghislaine Maxwell Says She’s Ready to Testify Before Congress on Epstein’s Criminal Empire
Bal des Pompiers: A Celebration of Community and Firefighter Culture in France
FBI Chief Kash Patel Denies Resignation Speculations Amid Epstein List Controversy
Air India Pilot’s Mental Health Records Under Scrutiny
×