Music Streaming Royalties & Payout Calculator
Calculate estimated streaming income across Spotify, Apple Music, TIDAL, Amazon Music, and YouTube, with master recording and publishing royalty splits.
1. Stream Volume & Platform
2. Royalty Splits & Distribution Fee
Understanding Master vs. Publishing Streaming Royalties
Every commercial song contains two distinct intellectual property copyrights that generate streaming revenue:
- The Master Recording (Sound Recording Copyright): Represents the specific recorded audio file. DSPs pay roughly 80% to 85% of total royalty revenue to the master owner through digital distributors (e.g. DistroKid) or record labels.
- The Composition & Publishing (Underlying Song Copyright): Represents the lyrics, melody, and musical chords. DSPs pay roughly 15% to 20% to songwriters and music publishers via Mechanical Rights Organizations (The MLC) and Performance Rights Organizations (ASCAP, BMI, SESAC, PRS, GEMA).
Worked examples: from streams to what you keep
The tool multiplies the stream count by a per-stream rate to get a gross figure, then splits it into a master pool of 85 per cent and a publishing pool of 15 per cent. The distributor's commission comes off the master pool only. Your share of each pool is whatever percentage you enter. The rates in the tool are its own approximations and have not been checked against any service's statements, so read the tables as a comparison and not as a quote. The first table uses 100,000 streams, no commission and full ownership.
| Service | Rate per stream | Gross | You keep | Streams for $1,000 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Blended market average | $0.0045 | $450.00 | $450.00 | 222K streams |
| Spotify | $0.0038 | $380.00 | $380.00 | 263K streams |
| Apple Music | $0.0080 | $800.00 | $800.00 | 125K streams |
| TIDAL | $0.0125 | $1,250.00 | $1,250.00 | 80K streams |
| Amazon Music | $0.0042 | $420.00 | $420.00 | 238K streams |
| YouTube Music | $0.0020 | $200.00 | $200.00 | 500K streams |
| Deezer | $0.0064 | $640.00 | $640.00 | 156K streams |
The gap between the highest and lowest rate is more than six to one, which is why the tool's estimate of streams to a thousand dollars runs from 80K on TIDAL to 500K on YouTube Music in the same model.
The second table holds the blended rate of $0.0045 and changes the distributor.
| Distributor | Master after commission | Publishing | You keep | Streams for $1,000 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| DistroKid or TuneCore, 0% | $382.50 | $67.50 | $450.00 | 222K streams |
| CD Baby, 9% | $348.07 | $67.50 | $415.57 | 241K streams |
| AWAL or Stem, 15% | $325.12 | $67.50 | $392.62 | 255K streams |
| Record label deal, 20% | $306.00 | $67.50 | $373.50 | 268K streams |
A split changes both pools in proportion. With a 50 per cent master share and a 50 per cent publishing share at the blended rate, the 100,000 streams give $191.25 from the master pool and $33.75 from publishing, which is $225.00 in all. The last table compares five ownership cases with the blended rate and no commission.
| Ownership | Master | Publishing | You keep |
|---|---|---|---|
| You own everything | $382.50 | $67.50 | $450.00 |
| You own the master only | $382.50 | $0.00 | $382.50 |
| You own the publishing only | $0.00 | $67.50 | $67.50 |
| Half of each | $191.25 | $33.75 | $225.00 |
| A quarter of the master and all the publishing | $95.62 | $67.50 | $163.12 |
Master and publishing are separate shares in the tool. A songwriter who does not own the recording keeps only the publishing line, which is $67.50 of the $450.00, and an artist on a label deal who gives up the master but keeps the publishing sees the same figure.
Working Vocabulary
Key music industry and royalty distribution terms:
- DSP (Digital Service Provider). A digital streaming music platform such as Spotify, Apple Music, Amazon Music, or TIDAL.
- Master Royalty. Revenue paid to the copyright owner of the recorded sound audio track.
- Mechanical Royalty. Royalties owed to songwriters and publishers whenever a musical composition is reproduced digitally as a stream or physical download.
- Performance Rights Organization (PRO). An agency (such as ASCAP or BMI) that collects performance royalties for public broadcasts, radio play, and digital streams.