"How much money you can earn with Spotify?" is the question that has popped up during the past couple of years. Some big name artists have pulled their music from Spotify, blaming extremely bad revenue shares and even labelling Spotify as the main reason for the music industry's decline. However, nobody has come out with the exact figures to back up that claim -- or disprove it. Until now.
Anssi Kela, a Finnish singer-songwriter, released his hit single "Levoton tyttö" earlier this year and he wanted to share his Spotify income details with his fans. He did it by drilling down the figures by month, and differentiating them to revenue coming from Spotify Premium, Spotify Unlimited and Spotify's free version.
First of all, he wanted to note that the revenue he got paid actually includes all the streaming revenue from all the streaming services where his song has been played. However, as other streaming services are virtually non-existent in Finland - with the song being in the Finnish language and with Finland being one of the first countries to actually get Spotify - Spotify stands as the de facto equivalent of music streaming services in the country, so it is fair to say that the figures represent revenue from Spotify, with maybe approximately 1 - 2 percent of the revenue coming from other services.
Here are the monthly figures for this particular song:
So, for about one million Spotify plays, the artist received €2,336.90 (appx. $3'160), equivalent to €0.002 / $0.003 per playback. At this point, Mr. Kela wanted to note that his contract with his record label is much, much better than what new artists would get. He estimates that his cut of the revenue would be as much as 10 times higher than what a new artist would get (as he has been popular artist in Finland for more than a decade now).
His details get interesting, when he breaks down the revenues between free and paid service on Spotify. Here are the details for April, 2013:
Those figures reveal that while the track received marginally more plays through the free version, the actual income was ten times higher through the paid versions of Spotify. In his case, this means that the stream playbacks via the paid versions of Spotify earned him about €0.004 / $0.0055 per playback and the free version only earned him €0.00036 / $0.00049 per playback.
Mr. Kela's message to his fans is that he doesn't want the world of physical CD sales back, but wants people who use the Spotify and similar services to start paying for the service, as that way, the artist you listen to also benefits.
First of all, he wanted to note that the revenue he got paid actually includes all the streaming revenue from all the streaming services where his song has been played. However, as other streaming services are virtually non-existent in Finland - with the song being in the Finnish language and with Finland being one of the first countries to actually get Spotify - Spotify stands as the de facto equivalent of music streaming services in the country, so it is fair to say that the figures represent revenue from Spotify, with maybe approximately 1 - 2 percent of the revenue coming from other services.
Here are the monthly figures for this particular song:
March, 2013
186,317 streams
€458.70
April, 2013
415,353 streams
€878.60
May, 2013
300,524 streams
€618.30
June, 2013
156,119 streams
€381.3
Total
1,058,313 streams
€2,336.90
So, for about one million Spotify plays, the artist received €2,336.90 (appx. $3'160), equivalent to €0.002 / $0.003 per playback. At this point, Mr. Kela wanted to note that his contract with his record label is much, much better than what new artists would get. He estimates that his cut of the revenue would be as much as 10 times higher than what a new artist would get (as he has been popular artist in Finland for more than a decade now).
His details get interesting, when he breaks down the revenues between free and paid service on Spotify. Here are the details for April, 2013:
April, 2013
Spotify Free
220,571 streams
€79.90
Spotify Premium and Spotify Unlimited
194,782 streams
€798.60
Those figures reveal that while the track received marginally more plays through the free version, the actual income was ten times higher through the paid versions of Spotify. In his case, this means that the stream playbacks via the paid versions of Spotify earned him about €0.004 / $0.0055 per playback and the free version only earned him €0.00036 / $0.00049 per playback.
Mr. Kela's message to his fans is that he doesn't want the world of physical CD sales back, but wants people who use the Spotify and similar services to start paying for the service, as that way, the artist you listen to also benefits.
