For some time now, people (artists) whether they are Bands, DJs, Singers, Composers, Conductors or any professional who makes a living from music, have been lacking in relation to the financial sector, the Pandemic that is not over yet, has generated many problems and the consequences will be felt for years and years for sure.
In the midst of this inhospitable and different scenario, many outlets were created and had greater support, as the fact of having contact and getting closer to others was harmed, therefore, the best way to have a performance independent of your profession, was through the digital world.
We are always posting issues and difficulties in this digital world, we are fully aware as a record company that everything went from 100 to 0 very quickly and despair ended up taking over everyone. Many people managed to cover their bills with Lives, Digital Parties, music sales and subscriptions, apart from the courses that were leveraged by platforms such as Udemy, Alura, Kaelo, Dosmétika, among others.
In view of this, we brought some interesting data to show everyone who wants, those who live and those who have this need: to make a living from digital music!
Spotify
Let's start with Spotify, what everyone wants to know: How much does Spotify currently pay per play? Well, come on, Spotify doesn't disclose this all the time, but the latest news on the subject would be US$0.00437 for each play! In other words, R$ 0.022 (in today's conversion 05/16/2022). It is estimated that Spotify is responsible for 75% of all the value that each artist receives in funds from digital music! Which is a lot! We are practically in the hands of a single Streaming service.
Apple Music
Next we have Apple Music which pays reasonably well, compared to the others, the figure per play is: USD 0.00783 which in today's conversion is around R$ 0.040 per play. Apple Music is very popular in the United States where it is the leader with 28 million active users compared to Spotify's 26 million, but outside the US Apple lags behind and is still following a path in the market, which has grown timidly but solidly . Apple Music currently has approximately 15% of the Streaming market. Strong!
It's worth remembering that Apple Music also offers the service for you to buy music with iTunes and even buy ringtones from your favorite artists, which generates a little more income, but doesn't support living off that alone.
Amazon Music
Still talking about streaming that is growing, we have Amazon Music, from Jeff Bezos' giant Amazon. This may also be one of the best paying, but it is still very raw, the dynamics of the app are a little confusing and the management part by the artist is still under development, being very similar to Spotify For Artists.
The value per play is USD 0.00402, which today corresponds to R$0.020 in our rich money. Amazon Music in Brazil is still very small and very lean, the company is already specializing in playlists that are more our style, with more important intentions that can add to national music. Recently, Amazon opened many job openings related to Amazon Music in Brazil.
You Tube
The YouTube music service has a collection of more than 70 million songs, with exclusive live and studio versions. By paying a monthly fee of R$27.90, the user also has access to all YouTube video content without the interference of advertisements.
It is perhaps the most comprehensive platform in the world, being available in almost all countries with free internet. However, the payments are the smallest, with each play the artist or whoever owns the rights takes home USD: 0.002, approximately R$: 0.0010, probably one of the worst collections, but always remember, the amount That's what it's worth, it's also important to remember that YouTube is an incredible tool for mass marketing, just like social networks. However, YouTube is one of the most difficult platforms to maintain a good level of audience listening.
Deezer
Deezer offers more than 73 million songs, recordings by artists in the platform's studios and original podcasts (not Brazil for now). There are subscription plans starting at R$24.90, with the option of paying just R$0.90 for the first two months, and options for those who want more advanced sound technology.
Deezer is one of the platforms that rarely says how much is paid to the distributor or record company to be passed on to the artist, there are rare cases in which they openly talk about this, they always include the company's earnings and profits in %. It could be a strategy for people to trust the earnings more than the dividends that the company has. Anyway, the latest estimate for 2020 of earnings per play is: USD 0.0064, around R$ 0.033.
Tidal
Tidal provides video productions, in addition to musical content with 80 million tracks. For those most demanding in terms of sound quality, it is the best option. Regarding podcasts, Tidal only offers original content from the platform. As for the available plans, it is possible to access the service for R$27 per month on the Tidal HiFi plan. For double the price, Tidal HiFi Plus allocates 10% of the subscription price to the artists most listened to by the user.
Tidal was born in 2014, but was purchased by Jay-Z in 2015 and relaunched, the idea was to bring better remuneration from streaming, which was successful and collapsed in 2016, when Tidal was sued for having more than 118 songs unauthorized entries in the portfolio in the name of Yesh Music Publishing and the band The American Dollar and do not pass on the profits from them. Ultimately, Tidal denied any wrongdoing and removed the songs from those involved from the catalog.
Tidal bets on albums and songs exclusive to the platform, such as some very famous ones by Kanye West and other artists from the American Rap scene. In addition to all this, Tidal was one of the first platforms to promote High Resolution as a plan, where you would have the best possible experience when listening to your music.
Tidal's play is really above the rest, it is around USD0.01284, currently in conversion of R$0.065, but still a long way from being something interesting to waste time promoting Tidal as the main streaming platform.
There are other platforms, but these are the main ones. In fact, we don't have official communication, for example, of how much Facebook and Vk pay, much less TikTok. However, these platforms act differently for each situation and so it is difficult to determine an average.
We enter here how many streams you must have to reach a minimum wage in Brazil, currently worth R$1,212.00. Please understand that these numbers are approximate and that platforms can change as needed. Finally, we would like to thank the contacts within the platforms and distributors who give us access to numbers and values.
Also understand that the platforms pass these values on to distributors and record labels and that each artist has a commercial agreement with the parties and that these streaming values will probably fall by up to 60% depending on the agreement.