(Free tool)
Streaming royalty calculator: what do your streams really pay?
Type in your streams and see what you would earn from the recording and from the song, or flip it round and find out how many streams you need to reach a goal. Rates are shown as a range, because that is the honest answer.
Why it is so hard to know what streams are worth
A million plays sounds like a lot until the statement arrives. No streaming service publishes one fixed rate per stream, so the figure you read in one article is rarely the one you see in your account. It moves with the listener's country, whether they pay for a subscription, and the size of each month's pool.
Most calculators make it worse. They take one stream count, multiply by one rate and stop. They ignore your distributor's cut, who owns the recording, and the second income that songwriters earn separately from the recording. The result is a number that is too high for some artists and far too low for others.
A calculator that shows the range and your real share
This calculator starts with a low, typical and high rate for six services, then takes off what you do not keep: your distributor or label cut and any share owned by other people. It can also add the songwriting royalties that sit on top of the recording income, using an adjustable assumption instead of a hidden one.
Use it the other way round when you have a target. Enter the amount you want to earn and it tells you the streams needed on any service, so you can see why the same goal takes ten times as many plays on one platform as on another.
- Six services side by side, each with a low, typical and high rate
- Your ownership and fees applied, so the answer is what you keep
- Publishing income shown separately from recording income
- Results in dollars, pounds, euros, Canadian or Australian dollars
- A reverse mode: the streams needed to reach any target
How to use the streaming royalty calculator
- 1
Choose whether you want to know what streams earn, or how many you need.
- 2
Enter your streams for each service (250k and 1.5m both work), or your target amount.
- 3
Set what you keep: the share of the recording you own and any distributor or label fee.
- 4
Switch on publishing if you wrote the song, and set your share and any admin fee.
- 5
Read the typical result and the range, then compare it with your real statement.
How accurate are the numbers?
Per-stream rates are estimates gathered from published industry comparisons and reviewed in November 2026: about $0.003 to $0.005 for Spotify, roughly double that for Apple Music, and a very wide spread for YouTube Music, where sources disagree. They are not official figures from the services.
The publishing figure is an assumption: on the same streams, the songwriting side earns roughly a quarter of what the recording side does. You can change it. If your statements show a different pattern, trust your statements.
Last checked:
People find this tool by searching for
- spotify royalty calculator
- how many streams to make $1000
- how much does spotify pay per stream
- streaming royalties calculator
- how much do 1 million streams pay
(FAQ)
Questions about the streaming royalty calculator
(Keep going)
More free tools
Publishing admin fee calculator
Self-publishing, admin, co-publishing and full deals, side by side.
Use the toolUnclaimed royalties checker
Find where your money may be waiting, with links to the official sites.
Use the toolSplit sheet generator
Songwriter and master splits that add up to 100%, ready to sign.
Use the toolGet paid for the songwriting side too
Streams earn two royalties. We register your songs worldwide and collect the publishing half so it does not sit unclaimed.