Streaming Royalty Calculator

Last updated: 2026-06-14

Enter your monthly streams for each platform, choose a payout band or type your own rate, and set your distributor cut. The tool estimates gross and net earnings. It is a planning aid, not a promise: no major streaming service pays a fixed per-stream rate. Payouts run on a pooled streamshare model, so a single number is always an after-the-fact average.

What the bands are based on

The default rate bands reflect commonly reported 2026 estimates. They are starting points, not official rates. The honest figure for any platform is a range, because the real number floats with where listeners are, whether they pay or use the free tier, and how many total streams the service paid out that month.

Sources: Spotify and every major service confirm there is no fixed per-stream rate and that payouts run on streamshare (Spotify for Artists Royalties Guide; Spotify Loud and Clear). Per-platform bands aggregate 2026 industry reporting from outlets including Royalty Exchange, RouteNote, and independent distribution writeups; figures are estimates, not published rates.

Why there is no real per-stream rate

Streaming does not work like buying a song. Listeners pay a flat monthly fee for unlimited access, not per track. Each month a service pools roughly two-thirds of its music revenue and pays each rightsholder according to their streamshare, the percentage of total streams they accounted for in that market. If your catalog is one percent of streams in a country, you receive about one percent of the recording royalties paid there. Your label, distributor, or publisher then pays you according to your individual agreement.

This is why a bigger service can show a smaller per-stream average. Spotify divides its pool across far more streams than Tidal, so each Spotify stream looks smaller even though the underlying revenue share is similar. A high per-stream number is often just a sign that listeners on that service stream less.

What this calculator leaves out

The tool estimates recording-side royalties from streams. It does not model publishing and songwriter royalties, which flow separately through performing rights organizations and The Mechanical Licensing Collective. It also does not apply Spotify's eligibility rule that a track needs more than 1,000 streams in the prior 12 months to earn recording royalties, a threshold that took effect April 1, 2024. For how the full picture fits together, see our explainers on the four royalty streams and the real economics of streaming payouts.

FTSMusic analysis is based on anonymized aggregate artist data, internal campaign observations, and publicly available industry documentation. Individual outcomes vary by catalog, genre, audience quality, and release strategy.

Related: The Four Royalty Streams · Streaming Payout Economics · Streamshare (definition) · Research Methodology.