ARTISTS-LABELS-SONGWRITERS-PUBLISHERS
What you can expect to make
A Breakdown on Artists, Labels, Songwriters, and Publishers Royalties in today's marketplace
These are only averages. Some may make more, some less.
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SONGWRITERS - PUBLISHERS
ROYALTY RATES
(approximate figures)
Terrestrial Radio: .0168 per play average (based on license fees paid by all terrestrial stations and when logged by the PROs)
Internet / Web Casts: .00015 per play average
iTunes Radio: .000045 per play average
Live 365: .0009 per play average
Pandora: .00005 per stream average
Rhapsody: .00035 per stream average
Spotify: .0002 per stream average
Youtube: .00005 per play average
Average royalty rate per internet play and streaming services .000091 (less than 1/100 of 1 cent) ea for Publisher & Songwriter
Mechanical license share paid to Publishers (split with writers): per physical-digital sale .091 (9.1 cents)
For an Indie songwriter or publisher to stay in the "Poverty Stricken" income bracket of $1600.00 per month,
they will need one of the following monthly totals:
Terrestrial Radio: 100,000 Spins
Internet / Web Casts: 10,700,000 Spins
iTunes Radio: 35,500,000 Streams
Live 365: 1,700,000 Streams
Pandora: 32,000,000 Streams
Rhapsody: 4,600,000 Streams
Spotify: 8,000,000 Streams
YouTube: 32,000,000 Plays
Average streams/internet play needed to maintain $1600.00 per month revenue: 17.6 million streams
Physical or Digital sales needed (based on 100% writer's share): 35,500 Units
Live song performances needed (ie; BMI Live @.62 per song average ): 2580 song performances
Summary: As of today, Live performances, Terrestrial Radio airplay, and mechanical-PDD licensing
are the most lucrative revenue producers.
ARTISTS - LABELS
ROYALTY RATES
(approximate figures)
Amazon Cloud: .0003 per stream average (range .00016-.0004)
iTunes Match: .002 per stream average (range .0001-.0035)
Last FM: .0005 per stream average (range .0045-.00045)
Media Net: .0095 per stream
Music Match: .015 per stream average (range .0091-.020)
Rdio: .008 per stream average (range .0045-.009)
Rhapsody: .0091 per stream average
Spotify: .0009 per stream average (range .00019-.0089)
Pandora: .002 per stream average (range .0006-.001)
Average per stream revenue from all streaming sources: .0053 (1/2 of 1 cent)
(Above figures are based on an average 'per stream' revenue derived from sales statements 2013-2014)
ALL above figures represent actual statements from Sound Exchange, Tunecore, CD Baby, and The Harry Fox Agency.
Sound Exchange pays the copyright owner and the artist for performances.
For an Indie artist to stay in the "Poverty Stricken" income bracket of $1600.00 per month,
they will need one of the following monthly totals:
Amazon Cloud: 5,334,000 Streams
iTunes Match: 800,000 Streams
Media Net: 168,400 Streams
Music Match: 106,600 Streams
Rdio: 200,000 Streams
Rhapsody: 176,000 Streams
Spotify: 1,780,000 Streams
Pandora: 800,000 Streams
Average streams needed to maintain $1600.00 per month revenue: 302,000 streams
CD/Album sales needed (via distributor @ 8.50): 188 units
CD/Album Digital Download sales needed(iTunes @ 7.00): 228 units
Single Track Digital Download sales needed(iTunes @.69): 2300 units
CD/Album sales via merch needed@ 15.00: 106 units
*All the above figures are taken from actual Publishing, Songwriter, and Indie Label statements between 2012-2015.