How much money do you make on YouTube music?

YouTube is a platform where people create and share videos, but it’s also one of the best ways to discover new songs online. With so many users watching millions of hours of video every day, it makes sense that they would be interested in hearing what musicians have to say about their latest releases too.

But how exactly does YouTube monetize its service? And more importantly — how are artists making money from streams or downloads on this platform? We spoke with several artists who use YouTube as another way to distribute their work to find out.

Is there an app that pays you to listen to music?

There isn't really any other alternative to streaming services like Apple Music and Google Play Music, which give subscribers access to a catalog of over 40 million tracks (and counting). If you're looking to avoid paying monthly subscription fees, these apps will offer better value than most alternatives. You'll even get unlimited skips!

If you don't want to use them though, some artists still manage to earn royalties off their song playlists through platforms such as iHeartRadio. It works very similarly to Pandora, except instead of radio-like algorithms, it uses human editors to curate playlist after playlist based on user requests. The only catch is that you need to maintain a minimum number of listens each month before you qualify for royalty payments.

For example, here's how Spotify breaks down artist royalties. Artists receive 70% of revenue generated by their own fans' playback up until $0.005/play—after that point, labels take 30%. However, it doesn't matter whether those listeners subscribed via Spotify Premium or not.

So while we all know that YouTube has a lot going against it right now, having a successful channel shouldn't stop you from asking yourself questions like "what happens when the pandemic ends?" Or perhaps thinking about ways you could make extra cash during lockdowns.

The answer lies within the question itself, and it comes back to why artists choose YouTube above other platforms. As long as it keeps growing, the opportunities for earning passive income keep opening up. Some artists already started experimenting with selling merchandise on their channels, others are working towards launching their own premium service...the possibilities are endless once you think outside the box.

How can I get paid for listening?

One thing's clear, however, regardless of whatever else you may end up doing — selling merch, creating podcasts, hosting events, etc.—there's no substitute for building a loyal following. That means regularly posting quality original content without fail. If you've got something interesting to say, then go ahead and post it (for free) on YouTube. But remember that just because someone likes your stuff enough to recommend it to their friends, it doesn't mean they'd ever consider shelling out actual dollars for it.

That said, if you're trying to build a business around your musical artistry, then you might want to start exploring different options beyond pure ad revenues. Here are three ideas worth considering.

1. Sell tickets to concerts

To start things off on the right foot, let's talk ticket sales. In recent years, Ticketmaster has been under fire for allegedly using unfair tactics to win contracts with venues and promoters. This led to speculation that major acts may soon move away from the popular ticketing company altogether.

In response, Live Nation Entertainment stepped forward to fill the void by offering exclusive deals directly to artists themselves. Instead of focusing solely on commissions from ticket sales, Live Nation allows artists to set their own prices. For instance, Taylor Swift sold her concert tickets exclusively on Twitter last year, charging $300+ apiece. She made nearly half a million dollars in total ticket sales alone.

2. Offer physical goods

What if you're tired of giving everything away for free? What if you prefer to sell tangible items like t-shirts, posters, stickers, albums, etc.? Then maybe you should try setting up shop on sites like TeeFury, Society6, Redbubble, MerchDirect, and Artsy. These marketplaces allow creators to list all kinds of creative products ranging from apparel to furniture.

3. Launch your own Patreon account

Patreon launched in 2014 as a crowdfunding site built specifically for creatives. Since then, thousands of artists have successfully raised tens of thousands of dollars each month thanks to generous patrons donating recurring subscriptions. A few months ago, Beyoncé became the first female musician to hit 1 million lifetime patrons.

While it takes time to grow into a full-blown creator community, the beauty of Patreon is that anyone can sign up for free. Once you reach 2,000 followers, you can promote special perks available only to members. Most rewards range between $5-$10 a month, but big names like PewDiePie charge upwards of $100+. Keep in mind that Patreon charges 5%-8% fee plus 20 cents per donation transaction.

Although it's true that Patreon benefits both sides (artists gain financial freedom, while viewers benefit from higher-quality content), the platform is far from perfect. One of its biggest criticisms is that it requires users to commit financially for longer periods of time compared to other payment processors. While some critics argue that it encourages unsustainable expectations among stars, many artists claim otherwise. On top of that, the platform is notorious for being rife with scams.

However, despite these drawbacks, Patreon remains one of the easiest and fastest ways to generate passive income. Plus, unlike other digital storefronts, you won't see ads popping up everywhere you turn. Also, since the platform relies heavily on donations rather than subscription purchases, there aren't regular bills to worry about either.

Does Spotify pay you to listen to music?

Spotify is one of the largest streaming companies in the world, boasting over 150 million active users worldwide. Its popularity stems from its unique approach to music discovery. Rather than simply providing recommendations, Spotify offers personalized editorial picks tailored to individual tastes. Whether you love indie rock, metalcore, pop punk, rap, folk, hip hop, jazz, reggae, country, soul or anything else, chances are that Spotify knows which genres appeal to you personally.

As part of its Artist Growth program, Spotify announced earlier this year that it had begun compensating artists for audio promotion across the platform. Although Spotify didn't disclose specific details regarding compensation amounts, according to Business Insider, artists can expect to earn anywhere from 0.25-4 percent of streams depending on their popularity. To put that figure into perspective, the average payout for a single track was reported to be around 0.02%, meaning that Spotify's incentive scheme likely results in artists taking home hundreds of times less than what the typical listener gets in return.

This isn't necessarily bad news though, especially if you subscribe to Spotify as a consumer rather than a star. According to the Wall Street Journal, Spotify recently began rolling out new features designed to help consumers become "superstars" on the platform. So instead of relying on algorithmically driven suggestions, Spotify wants to incentivize users to actively engage with content.

According to Spotify CEO Daniel Ek, "We believe that our Superstar system will enable us to unlock additional sources of engagement and growth. Our goal is to connect people with great artists." So basically, Spotify believes that it can improve its product by rewarding certain types of behavior (i.e., interacting with content) rather than merely encouraging them.

It's important to note that although Spotify claims to compensate artists for promotional purposes, it hasn't actually done so yet. The company plans to begin testing the feature later this summer, so stay tuned for updates.

Do artists get paid when you listen on YouTube?

Yes, artists definitely do get compensated for playing their content on YouTube. Unlike Spotify, YouTube does not rely primarily on advertising to subsidize creators. Therefore, it doesn't require artists to participate in promotions or giveaways in order to maximize earnings.

Instead, YouTube splits ad revenue 50-50 with artists after deducting necessary processing fees. According to Billboard Magazine, artists earned roughly 10 billion dollars in 2018. By 2020, Nielsen estimated that artists collectively took home 15% of overall ad spend. Of course, this varies widely based on factors including viewership statistics, genre preferences, and brand exposure.

Even so, YouTube continues to remain wildly profitable due to its massive amount of traffic. For comparison, Facebook brought in almost $40 billion in 2019 alone. Like other social media giants, YouTube earns billions from targeted advertisements served to watchful eyeballs.

Of course, if you're planning to launch your career as a singer-songwriter, producer, DJ, comedian, actor, model, photographer, influencer, writer, entrepreneur, or speaker, then you'll probably want to focus on maximizing your visibility offline. After all, the internet is nowhere near as powerful as the real world.

YouTube has been around for years, but it still hasn't really caught up with Spotify or Apple Music in terms of how much artists are getting paid off of streaming services.

But there is one thing that YouTube and other streaming platforms have in common: They all pay out royalties based upon streams — not actual downloads. So what exactly happens when you use these apps to listen to music? And more importantly, who gets paid first?

The answer depends entirely on which platform you're listening through. If you're using YouTube Music, then yes, you will be making some money off of your streams (but only if you've uploaded your own audio). But if you're on Apple Music or Spotify, neither party receives any income directly off of your usage.

Let's take a closer look at how this works across three different streaming platforms: YouTube Music, Apple Music, and Spotify. We'll also explore why we might see less revenue than our friends on Facebook Audio (which pays out by download) or TikTok (that uses its own proprietary payment system).

To keep things simple, let's assume you're uploading original songs exclusively to all three sites. You would need to create accounts on each site to access them, so feel free to skip ahead if you already have those set up.

For simplicity, let's say you want to upload 10 tracks to each service over the course of a month. Your goal here isn't necessarily to earn big bucks, just enough to cover costs while trying something new. By doing this, you could test whether or not you'd like to continue posting on a consistent basis.

If you plan to post consistently throughout the next 30 days, consider setting up ad-revenue sharing deals with whichever app(s) you decide to join. This way, you won’t incur charges until after the end of the trial period.

With all of this information gathered, it's finally time to crunch some numbers. Here's how much money you stand to make from streaming services if they follow this model.

Note: All figures below reflect payments made via PayPal, which is the method used by most major online retailers. However, if you prefer another option, please adjust accordingly.

How much does an artist make per play on YouTube?

A quick note about YouTube itself before moving onto the calculations: According to Google Trends, people spend roughly 18 minutes watching videos every day worldwide. That means that even though you may only watch five seconds of someone else's video, collectively, you're viewing hundreds of hours' worth of footage every single day. It's incredible!

Anyway...back to business. The average artist makes $0.0032 cents per hour viewed on YouTube under standard conditions. For reference, this number doesn't include advertising, sponsorship, subscription fees, or anything else associated with running a full-blown channel.

In order to calculate the amount you can expect to receive from YouTube Music, simply divide the hourly rate by the total number of views during the relevant timeframe. In this case, that comes down to 0.00016 cents per hour viewed. To put that into perspective, that's less than 1 cent per hour watched.

So assuming we have two bands with identical track counts, both earning 5 percent royalty rates on YouTube Music, YouTube should theoretically give us equal compensation regardless of popularity level. As long as we both hit 100 plays within the same 24-hour window, we should split the payout evenly between us. Or, said another way, we should each walk away with approximately 2.5 cents for playing along to someone else's music on YouTube Music.

However, this calculation assumes that you don't generate any additional revenue elsewhere. Since creators often rely heavily on ads placed alongside their content, this figure likely represents a lower limit for your potential earnings on YouTube Music.

Even still, the math seems solid. At least according to Google.

At present, YouTube Music offers "standard" channels 50% share of the revenue generated from advertisements played against your content. Which translates to half a cent per hour viewed. If we apply that percentage to our example above, the maximum value of earned royalties you'd potentially receive per hour viewed on YouTube Music would come out to 6.25 cents.

As always, remember that nothing is guaranteed. Channels whose creator relies primarily on subscriptions rather than ad-based revenue will be given higher shares. Additionally, content providers such as Netflix, HBO Max, Disney+, Hulu, etc., aren't subject to the same rules.

Regardless of where your clicks originate from, however, the point remains clear: Even if you're generating no profit yourself, you're still entitled to a cut of the pie provided everyone involved follows the proper guidelines.

Do artists get paid every time you listen to their song?

One last question: Do artists actually get compensated every time someone listens to their music? Not quite. Artists on YouTube currently receive 75 percent of revenue from streams. That means they get 25 percent of the revenue instead of 50 percent once you factor in everything mentioned above.

This is because YouTube takes care of paying out the necessary licensing rights required to monetize digital media. Once this process is complete, YouTube distributes the remaining funds equally among the parties involved.

Apple Music, on the other hand, splits proceeds 50/50. What that essentially means is that artists behind content on Apple Music get half of the profits whenever someone tunes into their work. Unfortunately, unlike YouTube, Apple Music doesn't handle the distribution side of things. Instead, individual publishers must submit claims directly to copyright holders.

Spotify handles this differently depending on the country you live in. While the company was formerly known as Pandora Media Inc., the Swedish tech giant rebranded to become Public Digital Entertainment Network earlier this year. Under the old name, Spotify distributed 70 percent of net revenues to record labels, 15 percent to publishing companies, and just five percent to artists themselves.

Under the current brand, Spotify now lets artists distribute 85 percent of net revenues back to their respective team members. Like Apple Music, however, Spotify doesn't handle the distribution aspect of collecting royalties. Again, it leaves that responsibility solely up to individual publishers.

When it comes to how much artists make per stream on Spotify, it varies considerably. Some musicians never receive any direct compensation whatsoever. Others get a few pennies per stream. Yet others enjoy multiple million dollar checks annually thanks to their success.

Just know that there are many variables to consider when calculating how much money you could possibly make on Spotify. Depending on where you fall in that spectrum, either party could win.

On top of this, Spotify also provides artists with exposure opportunities, including dedicated fan pages, exclusive concerts, and curated playlists. These perks help increase listenership without offering additional compensation.

Of course, Spotify's latest move to change its policy towards compensating artists is indicative of the fact that the music industry continues to struggle despite the efforts of various organizations such as SoundExchange and SOCAN.

According to Bloomberg Technology, Spotify recently announced plans to eliminate its existing performance fee structure. The new initiative will allow artists to remove themselves from the equation altogether. Meaning that Spotify will begin passing the savings gained from cutting out middlemen straight to fans, similar to how popular social networks compensate creative teams.

While this certainly sounds great for consumers, critics argue that removing the middleman ultimately hurts artists moreso than anyone else. After all, Spotify's growth strategy prior to 2021 relied on charging users a flat monthly fee. Removing that charge effectively means Spotify needs to find a replacement source of revenue.

That's right: If Spotify stops making money, it will stop paying artists.

We reached out to several independent artists to gauge their thoughts regarding Spotify's recent announcement. Their responses generally fell into one of two categories. Either they felt confident Spotify had their backs or they didn't understand the issue fully.

Some artists expressed confidence that Spotify's decision wouldn't negatively impact their livelihoods since the company already controls millions of subscribers. Other artists admitted they weren't sure how the news would affect them personally, but believed Spotify would eventually find a solution.

It's important to remember that none of this applies unless you choose to opt in. Without registering an account, there's little chance you'd ever learn about Spotify's changes. If you do sign up for an account, you'll soon realize that Spotify's entire userbase is divided into three main groups: Free Users, Premium Subscribers, and Family Plan Members.

Those looking to gain access to Spotify's premium features need only subscribe. Otherwise, anyone hoping to avoid spending extra cash on Spotify will remain locked out. There's good reason why Spotify calls this group "Premium."

Once again, this is highly dependent upon where you reside. Outside North America, Spotify allows artists to pick whatever price points they wish to offer.

How much do you make from each view on YouTube as a musician?

Now that we've established how much money artists make when performing on Spotify, YouTube Music, and Apple Music together, let's talk about how much you make from each viewer on YouTube specifically. First, let's tackle YouTube Music.

YouTube is making changes that may affect artists who rely heavily on it for their income, so we thought it was time to revisit how you actually get paid when uploading music videos there — and what kind of revenue streams are out there these days.

If you're an unsigned artist looking for ways to start getting recognized in order to sell records or tour dates, this could be useful information. But even more than that, musicians should know about all the other avenues they have open to them as well. If you want to see where the real money lies, here's some insight into how you might end up earning from streaming your own songs on YouTube.

The first thing I found interesting was just exactly how many different types of revenue streams there are available now on YouTube Music. Sure, Spotify has its share of playlists curated specifically for listeners, but it also offers "Discover Weekly" which mixes new tracks together based on previous listens (and sometimes recommendations). It's worth noting that while Discover Weekly is exclusive to Spotify users, every track uploaded onto any playlist will still show up on regular user profiles too. This means that anyone else who plays those songs via YouTube Music won't miss out on anything special either.

There are two main options for artists right now: monetized playlists and non-monetized playlists. The former type allows you to receive royalties each month after reaching 1 million views, whereas the latter only guarantees payment once someone requests a specific video. In terms of profitability, however, both kinds of playlists offer roughly similar results. So let's take a closer look at how each one works.

If you've got music already uploaded to SoundCloud, then you'll probably find yourself most interested in Playlist Monetization. For people without access to SoundCloud, though, Google Play Music All Access may be better suited for creating original content since it doesn't impose such strict requirements for submitting your work.

Playlist monetization requires you to reach 1 million monthly impressions within three years of publishing your video. Once you hit that mark, your earnings begin rolling in automatically until you meet another milestone: 500k views over 30 consecutive days. After that point, you'll need to send Google an audio file proving that you reached 500k views during that period (it's not clear whether this applies to other services like Apple Music). As long as you keep hitting milestones, the amount you earn per view will increase gradually.

As far as royalty payments go, Google takes 25 percent off the top before splitting the remaining 75 cents between you and the label/publisher whose song or album you used for the video. You don't necessarily need to worry about negotiating rates directly with labels or publishers, because Google handles all of that for you. Instead, focus on building relationships with producers, managers, agents, lawyers, etc., and hope that eventually you can convince them to pass along extra funds to help cover production costs.

While it isn't possible yet, the platform also plans to allow creators to split rights to their material among multiple collaborators. That way, everyone involved can benefit from future sales.

One major perk of working with playlists is that you can use existing ones instead of having to create your own from scratch. While creating original content can certainly yield bigger profits, using pre-existing material gives you a leg up in terms of saving time. Additionally, it helps build brand awareness faster.

It's important to note that while YouTube does provide analytics tracking metrics related to your broadcasts, it's unclear how accurate these reports really are. There are numerous examples of high-quality viral hits that didn't register big enough views on the platform to trigger payout windows. Also, while YouTube says that advertisers can target viewers based upon age range, gender, location, device, channel subscriptions, and search history, it's impossible to guarantee that a given viewer came across your clip through organic searches alone.

Another potential issue involves copyright infringement claims. When a third party uses your song without permission, that person must stop playback within five seconds of hearing it. At least according to YouTube itself. However, the company hasn't clarified whether this rule would apply to embedded clips posted elsewhere online.

In recent months, several popular channels like Smosh, KSI Gaming, and PewDiePie have been punished for violating YouTube's community guidelines. These actions typically consisted of repeated warnings and suspensions, although some cases may involve permanent bans. To avoid being caught in the crossfire, try to stay away from controversial subjects.

Finally, it's easy to assume that simply posting something on YouTube makes it instantly profitable. Unfortunately, that's often not true anymore. Since YouTube started cracking down on copyrighted materials last year, the site has removed millions of videos from creators' accounts. And whenever a takedown request comes in, the process can drag on for weeks or months depending on how complicated things get.

That said, there are various methods that you can attempt to fight back against bogus copyright infringements. One option is to submit counterclaims to DMCA notices under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act. Another method is to hire a lawyer or agent who specializes in intellectual property law. A final strategy is to wait till the problem blows over, and then repost the same footage later on.

Non-playlist monetization is less straightforward. Unlike playlists, this category doesn't give you any sort of guaranteed paycheck. Instead, you can choose to post your video on whatever date you'd like and collect ad revenues based on how much traffic it attracts. Advertisers bid for certain keywords pertaining to their products, meaning that your video can potentially appear alongside ads for everything from makeup to office supplies.

This approach has pros and cons compared to the above. On one hand, there aren't as many hoops to jump through when submitting your work. On the other hand, it's harder to predict how much money you'll earn per broadcast. Revenue varies greatly based on factors including title length, number of unique visitors, average duration spent watching, and audience demographics.

And unlike playlists, you won't get any direct benefits from boosting social media engagement. Even if your video gets lots of attention, it won't mean jack unless people click on the links leading to purchases.

So what happens next? Well, the best advice I can give you is to keep trying different tactics. Start small, experiment with tons of variations, and never underestimate the power of word-of-mouth marketing.