How are musicians making money?
Santiago Coates
April, 03, 2025
5 min.
Streaming revenue distributes billions of dollars, yet immediate access to funds remains a global challenge…
Within the music industry, the topic of musician payouts from music streaming platforms remains an issue. Beyond the challenges of low payouts and limited streaming revenues, there’s another significant problem, the lack of sufficient withdrawal methods, or the high costs associated with the available ones.
Most streaming platforms and licensed distributors, like those needed to upload music to Spotify, rely on traditional, limited payment systems like bank transfers or PayPal.
This lack of flexibility creates frustration among musicians already discontented with low streaming revenue. To address this, music industry players need a more adaptable solution that will result in happier users. Consider this scenario: if you’re running a record label or a music streaming platform, wouldn’t you want your users, the musicians, to be more satisfied?
Music Streaming Platforms: Everybody streams music
Music streaming continues to be a dominant force in the entertainment industry, with its market expanding significantly each year.
Remarkably, in 2023, the global music streaming numbers grew by 33.7%, reaching an impressive mark of 7.1 trillion streams.
Latin Music has become really popular recently. The number of times people streamed Latin music went up by 24.1%, reaching 19.4 billion streams in just one year.
Market Share
In the landscape of music streaming platforms, Spotify stands out with a significant market share of over 30.5%, as reported by Exploding Topics. This impressive market share underscores Spotify’s leadership in the industry, not just in terms of its extensive subscriber base but also in its influence over global music distribution and consumption patterns.
Additionally, the “others” segment in the music streaming industry is gaining traction, largely due to the current challenges faced by musicians, such as monetization issues and the low revenue from streaming. This trend indicates a shift in the market, where emerging platforms are attracting users and artists alike by addressing these specific challenges and potentially offering more favorable terms or innovative solutions for revenue generation.
Let’s talk money, revenue and streams 💰
Here’s an overview of the average payout per stream for some of the major platforms as of 2024
| Platform | Payment Per Stream ($) |
| Napster | 0.0190 |
| Tidal | 0.0130 |
| Apple Music | 0.0100 |
| Deezer | 0.0064 |
| Spotify | 0.00437 |
| Amazon Music | 0.00402 |
| Pandora | 0.00133 |
| YouTube | 0.00069 |
| Average | 0.00735 |
When you multiply the 7.1 trillion music streams in 2023 by the average payment per stream, which is about $0.00735, the total revenue comes to around $52.19 billion. This is the estimated total amount that streaming platforms, distributors, and record labels paid out.
How are platforms paying out their musicians?
Let’s see both sides, how are platforms paying their musicians and what is the experience of musicians earning their money on platforms 🤨.
Music streaming platforms typically compensate musicians through licensed distributors, which are essential for artists to get their songs onto platforms like Spotify. Through these distributors, musicians can upload their music to all major digital streaming platforms and earn streaming revenue. The earnings are then accumulated in one place, with well-known distributors including CD Baby, DistroKid, and Ditto.
However, a significant issue with these platforms is that payment methods are usually limited to bank transfers in the United States, PayPal, bank checks, or in some cases, Payoneer. Additionally, these transfers often involve high costs.
Another crucial question we aim to address is this: “What is the experience of musicians when it comes to collecting their earnings from music streaming platforms? 🤨
We spoke with 4NALOG, a music producer based in Buenos Aires, to understand his process for withdrawing his streaming income. He shared his experience with us, saying,
“When I get paid, I usually withdraw the money from my DistroKid account, which is my distributor. From there, I transfer it to PayPal. I can’t convert it to pesos because it’s pegged to the official dollar rate, so I often just leave it in PayPal in case I need to pay for something. Alternatively, I exchange it with a relative; I send the money to a U.S. account and they give me cash in return. But honestly, it’s money that I almost never have immediate access to”
The Soundcloud Case…
SoundCloud, known mainly as a streaming service, additionally provides artists with the option to monetize by selling their tracks directly to listeners. This is a functionality not yet available on Spotify, where payments are processed through licensed distribution platforms.
Currently, artists on SoundCloud have only two payment options for their earnings: bank transfer and PayPal. This limitation mirrors the common issue faced by other distributors and musicians in general when it comes to withdrawing streaming revenues.
Could Airtm represent a win-win?
Airtm Business emerges as a pivotal solution for the music streaming industry, addressing the crucial need for efficient access to earnings. With the industry generating approximately $52.19 billion in streaming revenue in 2023, Airtm Enterprise’s capacity for handling high-volume, global payments makes it an ideal partner for streaming services.
The platform provides a mutually beneficial scenario: streaming services enjoy reduced operational costs while their users experience heightened satisfaction.
With Airtm Business, users gain instant access to their funds worldwide in over 400 currency options, along with connections to numerous local banks.
This comprehensive access ensures that clients can receive their earnings in their preferred currency promptly and with low fees.
Such flexibility and convenience makes Airtm a great alternative to traditional payment methods like bank transfers and PayPal, leading to happier clients who have full control over their funds.
